


Ocean and a Rock

by purplehershey



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-31
Updated: 2014-09-05
Packaged: 2018-02-11 03:30:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 38,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2051955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplehershey/pseuds/purplehershey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. Regina is a waitress at the local crab shack. She goes through the motions of her days feeling bored and trapped in the coastal town she'd spent her entire life. That is, until she finds a blonde woman named Emma washed up on the beach, unconscious, battered, and salt coated. Swan Queen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm running free with the characters here. And the setting. But if you're willing to go for the ride with me, I think you just might enjoy yourself.

Poke.

Poke.

Poke poke poke poke poke.

"Mooooooom. I think I found a dead person over hereee," the round faced boy yelled as loud as his little lungs would allow him.

When he heard nothing in reply, he glanced over his shoulder. His mother was at least fifty feet back and strolled ignorantly along the beach with her shoes in hand. He looked back down at the heap of a body, particularly at the mess of blonde hair that was draped out in every direction.

He squatted down, his butt just grazing the moist sand. In his hand, he clutched a stick like a sword, seemingly ready for the mop of blonde hair to attack him.

A tiny sand crab crawled near the unidentified body, but he shooed it away with his stick. This was his find.

He huffed, impatient that this person wasn't moving, and looked behind him. This only caused another huff to release from within him, this time at the frustration of how slow him mom was walking.

He decided to take matters into his own hands and straightened his legs, his butt coming off the ground with a thin layer of sand still attached. Within seconds, he was running back towards the thin brunette that gazed out into the sea while trailing her bare feet in the sand. Overestimating his speed, and the distance between him and his mother, the boy ended up crashing into her with a thud.

"Woah, Henry. You're going to get hurt if you just-"

"Mom. I found treasure."

Regina smirked at the boys widened eyes. So now he was a pirate, she thought to herself. Her son had the most active imagination in the world, something she loved most about him. And it came out full throttle when they would take their nightly walks across the beach.

In the past week he had struggled with his conflicting identities as a prince, an explorer, a knight, and now apparently he had grown the aspirations of a pirate.

"What'd you find, sweetie?" She ran her fingers through his hair and looked down at her six year old. She hoped his big, round cheeks wouldn't disappear with age.

"I found a dead person," He stated proudly, his stick twirling circles into the ground. Regina's hand stilled instantly, and she tilted her head to the side. Years of being a mother had made her wary of listening to every thing that came out of her imaginative son's mouth, but she had no idea where he could have came up with this.

"You mean, you found a dead person because you're a pirate?" She searched his eyes for mischief, but found none. He was dead serious.

"No Mom, I found a dead person because its over there on the beach." He looked down the beach and pointed to where a lump lay in the sand. Regina squinted her eyes to see down where Henry was pointing and her breath caught when she did, indeed, she the a raised mound on the sand.

"Oh my-Oh my god," Regina went to grab the little boy's hand as she started jogging in the direction of the body, but he took off ahead of her in a sprint.

"Henry! Don't touch it!" She breathlessly called as she caught up to the boy, who had resumed his squatting position, stick still in hand. Regina slowed and kneeled down next to Henry, not caring that she was getting the knees of her white pants all sandy. She reached out a cautious hand, her fingers curled slightly, ready to pull back at the slightest movement, and nudged the shoulder of what seemed to be a woman. Nothing happened.

"Do it again, Mom" The boy encouraged while he poked the blonde mess of hair with his stick again.

"Henry! Don't poke her. She could be alive"

Regina placed her hand on the woman's shoulder again, this time putting enough pressure to successfully roll her over. Now, laying on her back, with one arm draped across her midsection, the blonde's head remained fallen to the side. Regina, seeing the woman's chest rise and fall, pushed the salt ridden blonde hair away from her face.

Tilting her head to the side so she could see the woman's face straight, Regina's eyes scanned over her face.

She had a bruised eye that looked fresh, purple creeping out from her eyelid.

There was a cut slashed along her cheek, Regina guessed the cut must have been older, since the water had seemingly washed it clean.

What looked the most worrisome though, was a gash that seemed to have split the woman's severely cracked lips.

Dirt covered the rest of her face, making it difficult for Regina to survey anymore damage.

Without quite knowing why, she reached out a hand to the beat up face and stroked it gently with her fingertips. Maybe it was her way of telling the woman to wake up. Or maybe she thought she could heal the cuts and bruises with her touch.

Whatever it was, her touch, or the timing, it worked.

The blonde's hand, which still lay across her abdomen twitched slightly.

"It moved! I saw it move!" Henry's eyes were the size of round golf balls, almost bulging out of his eyes.

"She. It's a woman..." Regina corrected while her eyes traveled all over the woman, looking for anything that was moving.

Her vision trailed down the blonde's clothes, it was now that she noticed how tattered and salt crusted they were. When she looked down at the blonde's pale skinned foot, she saw it. It moved slightly, as if testing out the waters of consciousness. And then again. This time, a groan escaped from her scratchy throat.

Both Regina and Henry gathered around her head, leaning forward in anticipation. But there was only quiet. The silence was too long for Henry's liking, so he reached out and poked the malnourished cheek of the blonde with his stick again. Regina opened her mouth to scold him, but another groan was released into the air.

Henry, who was standing above her head, craned his neck out so that his face was six inches away and upside down from the now awakening woman's.

"Are you awake?" He whispered, scared for the thin woman below him to answer, yet scared for her not to as well.

"Maybe," The blonde rumbled with a voice that sounded like sand paper. Henry giggled, despite the situation, and glanced over to his mother who looked completely unsure of herself.

It wasn't until the blonde started coughing that Regina sprung into action and put her hands on the other woman's shoulder, leaning her to the side so she could get some air. When the coughing died down, Regina gently laid her down on her back.

The blonde took a few moments to just breathe in and out with the lungs that now seemed to work. Her body felt so stiff she wasn't even sure if it was still attached. Behind her still closed eyelids, she focused on moving a body part at a time.

Toes.

Ankles.

Arm- Okay so her right arm was a problem. She had only moved it a fraction of an inch when a knife-like pain snaked up into her shoulder. She must have winced as a result, because her throat burned with the after effects.

Hearing the painful wince come out of the woman's mouth had Regina's motherly instincts kicking in.

"Don't move yet." She said in a hushed voice, placing her hand on the woman's forearm.

The minute that Regina spoke, the blonde's eyes lurched open, impatient to identify the source of the silky voice. Regina gasped when she saw her emerald eyes. They seemed to instantly pierce the air between them, locking on her own.

"What's your name?" Henry popped his head in front of Regina's head, giddy at the fact that he was the one who had found this woman.

"Emma," she whispered, her throat painful rubbing together with each push of air. Henry turned his head to Regina.

"Mom, we should take her home."

Regina snapped out of the foggy haze she was now in after the enormity of finding a seemingly cast away woman on the beach sunk in.

"Of course." She looked back into the eyes that made her feel suddenly exposed. Though it was ridiculous, Regina felt as though the person behind those eyes already knew all her secrets. "Can you stand?" she asked moments later while biting nervously on her lower lip.

It took Emma near five minutes to get herself to stand up, and even when she was, she clutched her right arm tightly and gritted her teeth in pain. Regina brushed the sand off her cuffed white capris and tshirt, slipping under one of Emma's arms and holding the brunt of her weight as they hobbled back to the house.

Every step caused pain from conflicting appendages, but none outdid the dull ache that took residence in Emma's heart. She was glad she was hurt, she thought bitterly to herself.

But it'd be better if she was dead. With them.

Before she could continue with her thoughts, her split lip seemed to crack open at the exertion. She felt warmth drip down onto her chin, but couldn't force herself to cause more pain that would be necessary to make it go away.

Just about thirty feet or so in front of them stood a small yellow house with a wrap around porch.

"Go get a glass of water and some rags please, Henry." Regina instructed. The boy went sprinting when he saw the blood flowing from Emma's lip.

"Okay, there are only four steps" Regina didn't know why she felt like she had to encourage the woman, she had enough drive within her consider she had just hobbled a quarter mile down the beach with at least one broken bone, not to mention severe dehydration.

Emma stumbled up the steps and collapsed into the padded swing that hung from the porch roof. Regina had intended to put Emma on the couch, but couldn't bring herself to tell the gasping blonde to keep moving.

Henry returned with a cup of water and some rags, which Regina placed on the ground. She cupped Emma's cheek, which had slid down, and now lay on the pillow of the swing, and put the water to her mouth. Tipping the cup minutely so that a slow stream of water entered Emma's mouth.

With the water droplets just at her lips, Emma remembered what people had always said happened if you got lost in the dessert. They said that after going so long without it, water would be like the nectar of the gods. That you wouldn't be able to get enough.

Instead, as the water bathed her throat, her heart lurched in her chest as the memory of liters of ocean water splashing into her open mouth and settling into her convulsing lungs played behind her eyes.

Emma's throat instantly closed in response and she coughed and sputtered, leaning over the swing so that her head hung above the free air. Regina pulled the stringy blonde hair from around her face just in case she was about to be sick.

"It's okay, you can have some water later." Regina reassured the woman whose head lay limply over the string in exhaustion.

"No." Emma rasped, her throat feeling like it, rather than her skin, had been coated with sand, "Now."

Regina moved the glass back to Emma's lips and held it there, focusing her entire body on releasing only one drop from the glass into the blonde's mouth.

This time, Emma kept her eyes open, and kept them trained on the olive skinned hand that held the glass. She fought back the memory that begged to resurface, and instead allowed the water to coat just a millimeter of her throat. It seemed to sizzle and relax with sweet relief.

She put her own hand on top of Regina's to tip up the glass a little more, noticing how soft the brunette's hands felt against her dry, calloused ones. The water came out in a thin stream now and ran into Emma's mouth and down her throat, washing the imaginary sand away, grain by grain.

It wasn't the nectar of the gods, but it was pretty damn close.


	2. Chapter 2

"You promise?" Regina heard herself say. Her eyes focused on the slick road as she dropped one hand off the steering wheel to rest on her lap. She flipped her bright headlights on, cursing the clouds for covering up the moon and leaving her to drive under such a dark sky.

She heard a rustle next to her, and realized her question had never been answered. Just as she was about to look over, what started as a tiny speck of bright light grew rapidly, soon taking over her entire field of view. She felt the car whip to the side upon impact with the bright light, and her head smashed into the side window with the force of a sledgehammer.

Regina jerked awake with a sudden intake of breath. It took her a second for her eyes to adjust to the dark surroundings. With a few more blinks, she began to make out the waves of the ocean, the beach was next to focus. She relaxed, realizing she was on her porch.

"Are you okay?" She heard a voice say softly beside her. Her body jumped at the surprise, and she jerked her head to the right. She saw Emma's silhouette in the dark, and slowly, the sleepy haze began to fade away.

"No, I just- I didn't realize I fell asleep." Regina rubbed her eyes and straightened her legs, which had been previously crossed. _Oh, god. I fell asleep_. Her stomach tightly knotted. _My son is inside sleeping and I have a stranger on my porch. She could be a murderer. An axe murderer. She was most definitely an axe murderer. And I almost just let my son get killed._

She looked back at the blonde woman still laying on the swing with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you, you were just screaming in your sleep." Emma's voice was still a little gravely despite the fact that Regina had sat up with her for hours, giving her cup after cup of water. She drank as much as her body would allow before it would start to feel sick. When that happened, she'd close her eyes and wait for the nausea to pass before preparing herself for more water. As she woke up to Regina's screaming, she realized she must have fallen asleep the last time she'd felt sick.

"I was screaming?" Regina's nerves began to relax, this woman was obviously in no shape to go swinging around an axe trying to kill her and her son. She could barely even sit up without her face twisting in pain.

"Yeah."

"Oh, I was just having the dream." The brunette waved it off as she looked around to change the topic. Glancing at the glass in her hand she thought about going to fill it up again, but it was still half full.

"The dream? You have the same one a lot?" Emma was desperate to latch onto anything that would tear her focus away from the pain that was currently radiating from her arm. Regina, on the other hand, was desperate to steer the conversation away to anything that would keep her from having from having to explain the nightmare she'd been having for almost six years now.

"Yes, I do. How are you feeling?" Regina looked around uncomfortably, suddenly feeling an overwhelming urge to go check on her son. She bit on her lip and wrung her hands together. Emma just watched the brunet woman in front of her.

"You can go check on him if you want. I promise I'm not going to hurt you, or him."

"Oh, I-I kn-"

"No, I get it. I can sleep on the beach if that'll make you feel better." Emma sucked in a sharp breath as she moved her good arm to push herself up from the porch. Her head swam with dizziness, but she continued nonetheless.

"No, stop." Regina scrambled from her sitting position against the house and put an arm on Emma's shoulder, pushing her down easily. Emma fell back into the swing with a soft thud, the bench holding her up while rocking back and forth. Regina used her other hand to still it, and looked at the pitiful shape the woman below her was in.

"Just, stay here. I'll be right back," She said while standing up. The axe murderer could be taken down with a light breeze, Regina thought. Her son would be safe tonight. Emma nodded weakly in response.

Regina went into the house where she walked up to Henry's room. He was curled up in his bed with his favorite blue blanket squished into a ball and wrapped up in his arms. His face was flushed, and his hair stuck up from all different angles. She sat down on the edge of mattress, which dipped with her weight, running her fingers through his hair, as she often did to soothe him. Satisfied that he was safe, she got up and left the room.

After quickly changing from the clothes she had been in from the previous day, she gathered some supplies to bring out to Emma. She deposited the plentiful items in her arms onto the wooden floor before noisily dragging over a wicker chair from the other side of the porch. Lowering herself into the chair, she opened the clear bag that now sat on the ground.

"Here, eat some of this." Regina pulled out a slice of bread from the bag that held a loaf. Emma eyed it hungrily, instantly realizing how empty and bottomless her stomach felt. While she had the urge to shove the entire slice in her mouth all at once, she'd learned from the water, and forced herself to take small bites, allowing her stomach to adjust to the feeling of having something in it for the first time in days.

Regina watched Emma eat, and she could practically see the debate going on inside the blonde woman's head. Sometimes she would bring a large chunk of bread to her mouth after only taking a bite seconds ago, but then pull it back quickly, forcing herself to wait until she had swallowed. For some reason, it made Regina smile.

"Why are you helping me?" Emma asked suddenly after caving and swallowing a much too large bite of bread. Regina looked up at the woman who, in the light of the moon, looked much more alive than the corpse-like heap she'd found on the beach.

Despite her lip, which remained split, and the bruises that covered her face, Emma's skin was beginning to regain its color and normality now that she had some food and water in her.

"I-" Regina knew she had two options. There were always two options. She could lie, tell Emma that she had wanted to take her in from the goodness of her heart. That of course she would feel the need to take care of a random stranger who had mysteriously washed up on the beach, with her young child sleeping soundly and essentially unprotected in the house. It was just second nature for mothers to take in potential axe murderers.

Or, she could tell her the truth. That her life felt like a song on repeat. And not her favorite song. Or even a song she could get used to. Or even a song, now that she thought about it. Instead, it was like something more along the lines of white noise. White noise that had no exciting crescendos, melodies, or sharp, staccato notes. Just constant, unwavering, uninterrupted, day in and day out, mind numbing, teeth grinding, head pounding, empty noise. And the thing was, white noise didn't have surprises. White noise didn't make spontaneous decisions. Or stay up half the night reviving a blonde woman that had washed up on the beach. And Regina knew, at this point, she was desperate to do anything that could break her free from that white noise. She'd do almost anything to finally feel finally at home in her own life.

"I-" Regina tried again, still unsure of which answer was going to spit out of her mouth.

"Don't," Emma said suddenly, looking at her with her piercing green eyes, "You're about to lie, I can tell. So I'll make you a deal. I won't ask you about the real reason you're taking care of some beat up stranger, and you can't ask me how I ended up on your beach. For now at least." Regina clamped her mouth shut. Appalled at the fact that the blonde had guessed that what was about to come out of her mouth was going to be far from the truth sooner than she had realized it herself.

"Okay." The brunette slowly nodded her head, deciding that her burning curiosity would just have to be put on hold."But you promise you're not an axe murderer?" She looked sheepishly next to her.

"Promise," Emma replied with a smile as she rest her head back down on the pillow, having filled her stomach of bread for the time being. They both sat there in silence. Regina's feet curled up under her on the chair and her head leaned on the arm rest. Emma lay on her side, swinging back and forth slightly on the hanging bench. Emma chuckled quietly to herself, finding it cynically amusing that considering everything, when her eyes were closed, she felt like she was back on the boat, rocking gently from the ocean. It wasn't the familiar environment that she found funny though, it was the fact that after all she'd gone through, it brought her comfort.

* * *

 

Regina's head began to fall of the chair armrest, sliding further and further down with each second. When it dropped into the air, she jerked awake. Squinting, she looked around at the now brightly sunny beach that lay before her. Feeling around on the back of her head methodically for the clip that kept her top layers pulled back, she pressed it together and her hair to fall down in front of her face.

She ran her fingers through it a couple times to untangle the knots, only to pull the hair back into its originally spot and clamp the clip down to hold the hairstyle in place. Glancing to the side of her, she expected to see Emma passed out on the swing still, but the bench was empty.

Regina's heart must have stopped beating for a record amount of time because she suddenly felt dizzy as she struggled to stand up, ready to sprint up to her sons room. That's when she heard the sound of the exact boy's giggle echo from the beach. She quickly shut the front door that was already opened a crack, and jumped off the porch.

With one more swift step away from the porch, she the view of the beach opened up and saw her son in his usual position. Butt down, knees bent, as he hunched over, most likely looking for something in the sand. Beside him, sitting down with her feet on the sand as well, legs also bent on either side of her, sat Emma, watching Henry dig. Regina stood there for a second, allowing her body to regulate from the shock it had just experienced.

After a couple minutes, she kicked off her shoes and padded through the sand over to the two.

"Emma! He's getting away!" Henry giggled as he squealed and dug frantically into the sand. Emma watched the boy with entertainment, one side of her mouth quirking up slightly. Regina came up from behind them and crouched down next to her son, kissing the side of his cheek.

"Good Morning," she said to Henry, but then looked up at Emma as if to say it to her too.Emma only smiled in reply, standing up suddenly. Regina straightened her legs as well, her eyes trained on the blonde.

She realized that Emma's hurt arm was now encased in a homemade sling of sorts. Right before she was about to ask where she'd gotten the sling from, Regina saw that half of Emma tattered shirt had been ripped off. It now only went down to the bottom of her ribs, causing her lean and muscled stomach to be exposed.

The brunette found that she couldn't look away, outlining the different ab muscles with her eyes as she continued to wonder who this woman really was. She must have had some labor intensive job considering how strong seemed to be.

Her eyes finally flicked up to Emma's green ones, who were staring at her questioningly. Regina's face flushed, acknowledging that she had been staring. 

"Is your arm hurt?" she asked, wanting desperately for the attention to deflect off of her staring ways. 

"Just bruised," Emma answered. Regina opened her mouth to respond but Henry spoke first. 

"Emma? Did you know that I found you yesterday?"

"Yeah, kid. You were poking me with your stick."

"You were awake for that? I thought you were dead."

"Nope, not dead."

"Emma? Where did you come from?" Emma chuckled at the boy who's face was waiting in so much anticipation, he looked like he might pee his pants. Regina glanced over at the woman next to her, knowing she probably wouldn't tell her son the truth considering their deal last night.

"I came from the ocean. That's why I'm so stinky and salty," Emma said while scrunching up her nose and shaking her head slightly. "You are pretty stinky…" Henry answered as he pinched his nose closed with his two fingers, a giant smile on his face.

"Henry!" Regina scolded before looking at Emma with apologetic eyes.

"It's true," Emma shrugged, grimacing slightly when her hurt arm moved up and down.

"Well. We have a shower you can use. I can give you some clothes too since yours seem to be quite," Regina looked up and down Emma's outfit, "destroyed."

"Hey Emma! You should use the outdoor shower. It's soooo breezy," Henry swiveled around his hips and waved his arms in the air. Both of the women began laughing at the boy who grinned proudly at himself for being so entertaining.

Regina led Emma to the outdoor shower, which had a wooden closet stocked with almost every amenity Emma could think of. Regina showed her how to get the water running, and then ran back into the house to grab her some clothes.

She chose some loose canvas shorts, a sports bra, and a tshirt. She made it halfway down the stairs before realizing that Emma would have to go without underwear. It was with the damn underwear that triggered the gravity of the situation to come crashing down onto her.

What if Emma didn't have anywhere to go? How long would she stay there? Did she have any family? Was she running from the law? For a few minutes, she stood, frozen on the steps with the pile of clothes in her hands.

It was until the doorbell rang that she even became aware she hadn't moved in awhile. Racing down the rest of the stairs, she reached over to the door knob and opened it easily, the breeze pushing with it.

"Why do you look so surprised to see me?" Regina had completely forgotten her best friend was coming over. That's how she knew how frazzled she really was. Kathryn came over every Saturday to spend the day with her and Henry. Today they were supposed to go into the small town to shop.

"Something happened, Kath." Kathryn's face dropped immediately and a darkness spread over it.

"What's wrong? Where's Henry? Is he okay?"

"Henry's fine."

"Then what?"

"Something." Regina couldn't get herself to say the words, 'I found a washed up woman on the beach and she's currently showering in my shower while I bring her clothes'. Suddenly, Regina realized she had never dropped off Emma's clothes outside the shower like she'd promised almost twenty minutes ago.

"Regina? What hap-" Kathryn's voice caught in her throat as her eyes widened significantly. Regina saw her friend's face transform dramatically and looked over her shoulder to see what had caused it.

Behind her stood Emma, wrapped in a white towel that only reached to the top of her thighs . Her arms were folded slightly to keep the already small towel securely in place, pushing her chest up slightly. Hanging down, her blonde hair dripped wet droplets of water onto her shoulders which then rollied down her collarbones and disappeared beneath the towel.

With all the sand, salt and grime washed off, Emma looked like an entirely different person.

"Uh..I couldn't find the clothes," Emma mumbled as her eyes flicked between Regina's shocked face and Kathryn's smirking one.

"And who might you be?" Kathryn practically purred while nudging Regina sharply in the ribs with her elbow.


	3. Chapter 3

"You're telling me you just found her passed out on the beach?" Kathryn whispered to Regina while Emma and Henry walked ten feet or so in front of them.

"Yeah, she was just laying there."

"And she hasn't told you what happened?" Regina worried her bottom lip with her teeth, a nervous habit of hers. She didn't want to tell Kathryn about the deal she'd made with Emma. It would throw up red flags to Kathryn that she was hiding something. Her best friend knew she bored with her life, but she had no idea the extent of emptiness that she felt. She hadn't been in Regina's life when it completely changed six years ago, so she didn't understand. Regina couldn't blame her.

"No. She didn't say anything."

"Huh..." Kathryn said as her eyes traveled up and down Emma's backside. Regina looked over to her friend and saw her eyes pinned on something. She followed the direction of her gaze.

"What are you doing?" Regina forced out in a hushed whisper, making sure to keep her own eyes on the two in front of her. Despite the fact that Emma seemed to be really good with Henry, she was still a mysterious stranger they had only found the night before.

"I'm looking at her ass, Regina." Kathryn explained sarcastically, her lips curling up into a devious smile knowing the reaction her more prudish best friend was about to have.

"Wha- Don't- Why are you doing that!" Regina wrapped her fingers firmly around Kathryn's forearm.

"Because even with the busted lip and bruised eye, I think she's smoking hot. Don't you?" Kathryn turned to look at Regina whose neck was slowly turning a light pink shade.

"No," Regina answered meekly. Kathryn chuckled, she had no practical interest in woman. Of course she could appreciate a nice ass like Emma's any day, but she didn't want to get with it. She'd much rather run up to the woman and compare fitness tips so she could get that ass herself. But Regina felt otherwise. They'd only been friends for five years and the brunette had never been with a woman in that time, but Kathryn knew.

Before she got another chance to play 'let's see how flustered you can get Regina', a favorite pastime of hers, Henry turned around and screamed,"We're going to look at the boats!" Regina nodded in response. She and Kathryn followed them as they veered off from the pathway in town down to the harbor.

The pavement quickly turned to planked wood when they stepped down onto the docks. Regina could see Henry pointing out all his favorite boats, no doubt explaining to Emma everything he had learned about them. Regina's eyes traveled down his form, mindlessly thinking to herself.

_I'll probably have to buy him new pants soon, they're getting a little short. His shoes are most likely tight as well. Jesus, Emma really does have a nice ass. And how are her legs so fi-_

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Kathryn whispered into Regina's ear before she jogged up to join the blonde and little boy. Just as Kathryn caught up and matched pace next to Emma, she threw her head behind her and wiggled her eyebrows dramatically at Regina. Regina rolled her eyes, but took the bait and sped up to walk next to Henry.

They all strolled along the dock, which swayed slightly with the waves. Emma's face looked a little pale, Regina noticed, but she attributed it to her still recovering body. When couple of rougher waves rolled in from the ocean, the boats swayed a little more. The ring of a bell from a fishing boat sounded as it was rocked back and forth. Any color that still remained in Emma's face completely disappeared.

She sprinted back the stairs that separated the docks from the town in a rush. Regina looked at Kathryn, her forehead wrinkled in confusion. Kathryn put her hand on Henry's shoulder, letting Regina know with a look that she'd look after him. Jogging up to where Emma had ran to, Regina rounded the corner of the bait shop and saw her sitting on the ground, her back leaning against it. Her feet were bent up, just like this morning, but her elbows leaned on her thighs and her head rested in her hands. As Regina neared, she realized that Emma was hyperventilating.

After Emma heard the bell of the fishing boat, she saw a flash of memory play behind her eyes.

_Her mother held tightly onto the net that hung from the side of the boat, her feet dipping into the rolling ocean. The sky was covered with booming clouds, rain and ocean water completely soaked Emma, who leaned over the side, reaching her hand out, begging her mother to grab on. The lightening flashed, lightening up the entire sky_

Her vision focused back on the docks that she was currently standing on. She bolted, trying to get anywhere but where she was now. Leaning against the bait shop, she felt her lungs disobey her. They convulsed and clenched, preventing her from getting a full breath of air.

_Her mother's pleading eyes stared at her._

She gasped and hung her head through her knees, remembering from some first aid course that's what you were supposed to do.

_A wave crashed into the boat sending Emma flying back towards the middle of the deck. She scrambled back to the edge. The nets were empty._

Emma felt a hand on her arm. She looked up to see Regina crouching next to her with a face Emma couldn't imagine being for her. There was no logical reason for this woman to be worried about her. They had just met. The stormy ocean rolled around as Emma searched for any signs of life beneath it. Regina was getting concerned. Emma had looked at her, but it seemed she was seeing something besides herself.

_Dark water. Dark sky._

The blonde's breathing hitched as her body begged for oxygen.

_Silence._

"Emma" She tried, and successfully too this time. Emma's head snapped up as if suddenly realizing that someone was next to her. Regina rubbed her hand up and down Emma's arm like she did to calm Henry. It was the only thing she could think of. The struggled breathing that had Emma struggling just minutes ago began to calm as she took in a few smooth breaths. They both just sat there until the gasping completely subsided and silence overtook them. "Emma…" Regina repeated, this time trailing of, leaving it open ended.

"I can't…right now. I will. I promise. I'll explain, but just-" The blonde's eyes began to fill with moisture. That last thing she wanted to taste on her lips was salt from her tears, so she tilted her head back until they re-absorbed in.

"You don't have to. It's alright." Regina finally pushed her feet out from under her and leaned against the wall of the bait shop next to Emma.

"I'm not really ready to explain either." She tried to force smile to the blonde next to her, but Emma just looked at her with eyes that told her to stop pretending. She obliged, letting her head fall back next to Emma's. Regina was overwhelmed to say the least. This woman she'd known for less than 24 hours had already called all her out on all the bullshit everyone else had seemed to believe for the past six years.

"We should…get back. I kind or ditched Henry and Kathryn to come running after you." Emma, now decently recovered, looked up and shot an honest smile at the brunette sitting next to her. "What?" Regina snapped in response to the look Emma was giving her.

"You gotta stop doing that you know." Emma pushed off her feet with her good arm, it surprisingly felt ten times better now that she had food and water in her body. "Doing what?" Regina remained sitting, tilting her neck back to look up at the blonde.

"Rushing off to save me." Emma held out a hand which Regina took to pull herself up. When the palms of their hands made contact, Regina felt a certain roughness and turned Emma's hand over to look at it. Emma saw what she was doing and clenched her hand closed in a fist.

"Sorry," Rmma blushed and started to walk away, but Regina stopped her. She grabbed her hand again, looking up into emerald eyes until she slowly uncurled her had. When Emma's hand was open, Regina gasped. Her palm had been rubbed completely raw by something. The layers of her skin in a slash that went from between her thumb and forefinger all the way across was bright red and blistering.

Emma's heart pounded, hoping that this wouldn't be the last straw that would cause the other woman to demand answers. She knew that if the brunette demanded them, she would tell her. She deserved to know after saving her and all. But instead, Regina just pushed the hand closed with her own gentle fingers.

"We'll have to find something for that." She decided before dropping Emma's hand and walking back to the docks where Kathryn and Henry sat, still looking at the boats. Emma remained still where she was standing, calling out to the brunette who was still walking away, "I'm going to use the phone," she said before she pivoted around to walk to the pay phone down the street.

Regina joined up with Kathryn, who shot her a look that said 'you'll be explaining later' and Henry who had been so absorbed in the boats that he had barely noticed she was gone.

"Where'd she go?" Kathryn asked as she leaned back to look behind Henry who sat in between her and Regina.

"Use the phone." They sat there until Henry had fully and completely described what he did and did not like about every single boat.

"Mommy, I'm hungry. Can we go to the crab shack?" Regina and Kathryn both groaned. They worked as waitresses there and the thought of having to spend more time than what they were being paid for made them cringe.

But Henry was the king and Saturdays were his day, so they reluctantly agreed. They walked slowly up the docks and down he street to the crab shack where they hoped to catch Emma on the way. Instead, they saw her standing in the crab shack talking to someone whose back was to them.

With the jingle of the doorbell Emma glanced over to see Henry, Kathryn and Regina entering.

"Emma!" Henry was still in the stage where he couldn't get over the fact that his new-found treasure on the beach was now a real life walking and talking person.

"Hi Henry." Regina realized that Emma's face instantly softened around Henry. I mean, whose didn't, he was adorable. But Emma especially always seemed to have an air of seriousness over her. Henry seemed to be the only one who could break it.

"I called my bank, they're going to send my card here. I didn't really have an address though so I just told them the first one I saw."

"Which was this one luckily." Ruby, now turned around to reveal herself to Kathryn and Emma before putting a flirtatious hand on Emma's arm. From the look on Kathryn and Regina's faces, Emma could tell that they were not Ruby's biggest fans.

"What will you do until then?" Kathryn feigned innocence as she pushed Henry a little towards his mother. Regina might be able to ignore her, but she could not ignore the cute face that had won over the hearts of all the mere mortals.

"You don't have a place to stay?" Ruby grinned seductively while tilting her head to the side. Emma froze, Ruby looked like she was about to eat her alive. But at this point, she wasn't one to be choosy.

"Uh, no-"

"You'll stay with me," Regina heard herself saying. _What?_

She looked around slightly to see if someone else had said it, but by the way Kathryn was looking at her smugly, she had to face the facts. That had just came out of her own mouth.


	4. Chapter 4

Regina felt torn, she really did want to be able to provide a roof over Emma's head, but she also had Henry to worry about. Plus, there was still a twenty five percent chance that her first suspicions had been right that Emma was an axe swinging, blood thirsy-

"I'm not some crazy psycho I promise…" Emma held up both hands defensively. Regina twisted her face, seriously wondering if Emma could read minds.

"You're clutching that bat like you're ready to hit me over the head with it."

Regina loked down at her hand and realized her fist was wrapped around the bat so tightly that her knuckles were white. She instantly released it and laughed nervously.

She'd come out to the porch after putting Henry to bed so that she could clean up the toys that Henry had completely scattered in a matter of minutes. Placing the bat against the house she noticed that Emma lie down on the swing.

"I'm gonna sleep out here. I know with Henry and everything I'm still kind of a risk" Emma adjusted the pillow so that it was more comfortable under her head.

"It's not a-" Regina began, cursing her mouth for running when she hadn't given it permission. It totally was a risk. What was she thinking?

"Maybe one day you'll learn," Emma said sleepily before yawning widely. Regina stared at the blonde who had closed her eyes. Emma opened one eye with a scrunched face, feeling Regina staring at her. "Whatever you got going on here, where you tell everyone one thing, but actually feel another, you don't have to pull that with me. You can tell me the truth, or not. Just don't lie."

As soon as Emma finished talking, Regina's stupid, stupid mouth with a mind of it's own re-opened.

"I think you're gorgeous. But I don't want to sleep with you."

Regina clamped her mouth shut so hard that Emma could hear it her teeth click together. The brunette had lived in her orderly and unsurprising life for so long that she had no idea what to do when this woman could see right through her.

Emma raised her eyebrows, a smirk settling over her face while Regina desperately tried to make up for what she had just word-vomited out.

"I mean not that I don't want to sleep with you, but you have a black eye and-"

"You don't want to sleep with me because I have a black eye?" Emma was just messing with Regina now. She couldn't help it, the seemingly conservative woman was so flustered that she wondered if she was going to sprint off into the dark in order to end this conversation.

"No, of course not. I just mean I haven't slept with anyone in three years and. Oh my god." Regina forced herself to stop, seriously considering walking out on the beach and drowning herself into the ocean.

"I got an idea. You go back into the house and I'll pretend this whole conversation never happened," Emma responded to the brunette that was getting herself so worked up Emma began to feel bad for her. Regina took the free pass that Emma was giving her and rushed in through the door, not even bothering to say goodbye.

She jogged up the stairs and into her bedroom, feeling like a child that was racing out of the basement to avoid a monster on their heels. She spent the night staring at her ceiling, wondering when she'd gone from being so completely in control to not even being able to shut her mouth.

\---------------------------

The next morning, when Regina saw that Henry's room empty, she panicked slightly less than the morning before. Sure, her heart pumped a little faster, but that was pretty usual when Henry did anything that caught her off guard.

Her long legs flexed as walked down the stairs on pointed toes. She heard voices on the porch and somehow knew that was where Henry was. It was concerning to her that she already trusted the woman enough to be around Henry without her presence. It was more than concerning, it was just confusing.

Regina didn't know what was going on inside of her, but she felt way too comfortable with the blonde. Even though she spent half the time sputtering and acting like a fool, that was already showing more of herself than the controlled, zombie like persona she usually exhibited.

Everything was confusing, she thought to herself as she listened to the coffee stream out. She felt like she was living a life that wasn't hers, one that only required for her to go through the motions. Yet, she didn't do anything to change it. She didn't even know what she could do, or how she would go about it.

Her identity was as much of a mystery to Regina as it was to everyone else. In both the figurative and literal sense.

The timer beeped, interrupting her thinking and she poured the coffee into two mugs on the counter. She walked smoothly taking care not to spill the coffee. Her tank top rid up slightly, but she didn't have a free hand to pull it down. She twisted the front door knob open skillfully with her elbows and kicked the door open with her foot. All in all, only a drop of coffee had dropped onto the dark wooden floors of the house. Success.

Emma and Henry who were sitting next to each other on the porch swing talking, ceased, and looked up at Regina in the doorway. Regina handed Emma a cup, her tank top now fell just below her belly button, her tanned, lean stomach exposed. Emma took the mug while looking Regina up and down with a smirk.

"Three years, huh?" Emma's smirk was positively mischievous. Regina's faced turned a light shade of pink as she shot Emma a look.

She remained standing and finally pulling her tank down purposefully and sipped her steaming coffee.

"I have work today, sweetie." She said towards Henry who was playing with two toy dinosaurs on his lap. He looked up, stilling the dinosaurs in his hands.

"Going to see grandma?"

"Yeah, you'll go stay with grandma today." He nodded his head and resumed playing with his dinosaurs, making quiet mock scream sound effects every once and a while when he clashed them together.

"I'm not sure if you want to go back in town for the day or…" Regina directed to Emma who had a pile of toy dinosaurs sitting on her own lap. Henry seemed to have decided she was the dinosaur keeper, because he traded a dinosaur from her lap for one in his hand every few seconds.

"I'll figure something out." Emma replied with another sip of her coffee.

The rest of the morning was spent with Regina chasing Henry around the house to get dressed and ready while trying to get herself ready at the same time.

Emma stood in the kitchen, watching the amazing amount of chaos and noise that only the two people caused. She felt completely useless, but didn't want to push any boundaries that Regina had set when it came to her son. When Henry was finally ready, and Regina was most definitely not, Emma finally spoke up.

"I can take him outside and distract him if you want." Emma offered as Henry opened up his eyes and nodded first looking at Emma and then at Regina.

"Sure, go ahead Henry," She prayed that Henry would be able to keep his clothes clean. She always felt guilty bringing him to her mother's house already dirty and sandy.

"Thank you" She said to Emma who was now being dragged out the front door by her hand.

Regina finally made her way to her room where she jumped in the shower and dressed in her red shorts and white polo waitressing outfit. She ran a brush through her hair and looked at her appearance. She hated how average looking she looked in the shorts and shirt combo she wore almost every day. And she hadn't even put on the hideous waitressing apron yet.

She pulled her hair back into her half up hairdo that she seemed to sport almost every day and jogged back down the stairs. When she grabbed her purse and Henry's bag she exited out the front door.

"Are you going into town, Emma?" Emma lookd up from her place on the porch steps, an uneven pile of race cars now in her lap. Henry was zooming one car over her bare shoulder and another one drove over her head.

"Vroooooom. Vrooooom Pfffffff!" The sound effects were loud and sudden as Henry crashed the cars together. Something that seemed to be a theme for him.

"Yeah."

"Come on, I'm going there too so I'll give you a ride." They all piled in the white SUV and drove on the back roads until they pulled up to a large white house.

Regina got out with Henry and walked him to the door where Emma struggled to make out the woman standing in the doorway. She couldn't really see much since Regina was standing in the way though and gave up.

The drive from the house to town was quiet, but not tense. Emma spent most of the time looking out the window.

"This place looks familiar," Emma said quietly as she continued to look into the forest that began sparse, but thickened as they drove more into the mainland before veering back out to the ocean side.

"Have you been here before?" Regina asked while keeping her eyes forward. Driving made her nervous, so she spent most of the time clutching the steering wheel as if her life depended on it.

"I don't think so. Maybe. My family spent a lot of time on this coast."

"Vacationing?" Regina itched to look over the blonde next to her, whose voice had become soft and sullen.

"Fishing. My parents were fisherman. I guess I was too." Her voice had dipped into a whisper, and she kept her head turned toward the window so Regina couldn't see the pain in her eyes.

"Oh." Regina noted Emma's use of 'were' rather than 'are' and hoped that they had just retired, or something.

"They died," Emma stated bluntly. Her voice held no emotion, but when Regina looked over, she realized the reason was because it was all stored up in Emma's face. The woman looked like had just seen a ghost. And she had.

The flashbacks flickered behind Emma's eyes once again.

'Emma. We're sorry. Save your mother.' her father screamed as he struggled to steady the giant steering wheel of the boat. Emma barely heard him over the deafening sound of the rain pouring onto the boat and the waves slapping against the side, spilling over onto the deck.

Regina watched Emma wring her hands together and knew she had descended back into the place she had gone at the docks.

Emma turned to look for her mother on the deck, but couldn't find her. She glanced back to the front of the boat to see the steering wheel spinning emptily. Her father was nowhere on the deck.

Regina struggled to say anything she could to snap Emma out of it. She opted for just continuing the conversation.

"When did they die?" She asked after clearing her throat. Emma's emerald eyes swirled from the dark green they had been in remembrance to a ligher shade of emerald.

"Four days ago."


	5. Chapter 5

Regina spent the first two hours of her shift in a daze. She spilled someone's water, mixed up an order, and she kept forgetting where she put her god damn pencil. Every time, she ended up finding behind her ear.

Though Emma hadn't said anymore about her parents, Regina knew that whatever happened out in the ocean that left Emma washed up on the shore had also killed her parents.

She counted down the minutes until Kathryn got there, she always knew how to make her feel better.

"Did you see Ruby get that guy's number?" Kathryn's voice appeared behind her right on time. She was dressed in the same outfit that Regina was, down to the white notepad and pencil. Kathryn looked at Regina's blank face.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing." Regina replied. She didn't want to tell Kathryn about Emma. Somehow, Emma telling her something about her past, without begging a response from Regina had seemed like a gift. Something to be kept a secret.

"Well, whatever it was. I bet the problem will magically disappear in 3…2…"

Regina followed Kathryn's eyes and saw Emma enter the crab shack right as Kathryn said 'one'. Emma didn't look around when she entered the restaurant, instead she immediately slid into a booth against the window, and looked out.

Regina's heart began to thump when she saw Emma had sit in her section. She had no idea if they were just going to pick up from their last conversation, or if they were just going to avoid it all together.

"Hi Emma." Regina began in a soft voice while taking out her notepad habitually.

"Hey. I found a job." Emma placed both of her hands on the table top and interlaced her fingers together gently.

"What?" Regina was completely thrown off. Why did she need a job? Where did she get a job?

"I'm gonna help dock the boats. Pretty much do whatever they want me to"

"You're going to work at the docks?" Regina raised her eyebrows to her hairline, remembering the panic attack Emma had when they visited the docks just yesterday.

"Yeah. I figure it will help me with…you know."

"Were you looking for one?"

"No, I was just walking around and I told this guy how awesome his sailboat was. He was complaining cause he wanted it to be docked the opposite way so he could show off the name he'd just painted on. He said it was too hard to maneuver though and he'd have to wait til he took it out next. I told him I'd do it for him and if I messed anything up I'd pay for it. He agreed, and once I did it I found out he owned the docks. Hired me on the spot. " Emma said it all so nonchalantly as if nothing out of the unusual had just happened. Regina's jaw dropped.

"You just washed up on my beach, had a panic attack at the docks yesterday, and you already went back on the water?" Her words came out opposite of Emma's, all jumbled and hysteric. She continued to stare at the enigma of a woman that sat in front of her.

"It's my home. I've spent my whole life on the ocean," Emma looked down at her hands and blushed, "plus, I had some help," she added quietly.

She was obviously hesitant to tell Regina that while docking the boat, she had kept her eyes trained on her the whole time. Through the crab shack windows Regina's section was perfectly in Emma's line of view from the docks.

She knew it sounded stalkerish and creepy, but somehow just looking at Regina made her flashbacks fade. It was unexplainable.

Emma had struggled with how she felt for the brunette woman the entire afternoon. She concluded that being around Regina was like having a word on the tip of your tongue, but not being able to spit it out.

It was kind of like knowing the words to a song, but not being able to sing it until you heard the music.

When she looked at Regina she felt her mind searching and searching for memories where she starred in them, memories that could back up and justify Emma's feelings, but all of the memories she came up with started just two days ago.

"Help?" Regina's head tilted to the side, waiting for Emma to elaborate.

"Uh, there was music playing so it distracted me." Emma lied uncharacteristically, completely embarrassed about the truth.

Regina narrowed her eyes in recognition of the wavering voice she often had herself when she lied.

"You know, two can play the whole lying game," she responded as she slid across from Emma in the booth. Emma sighed, knowing she had been caught.

"When I look at you the flashbacks go away. It helps me remember where I am," Emma met Regina in the middle, not exactly lying to her, but not telling her the complete truth.

"That's probably because I'm the first one you saw on land." Regina reasoned out loud for her own person benefit.

The thought that she was currently anchoring the woman beside her to reality was a little too much for her to mull over while Emma was staring at her with beautiful emerald eyes. There, I admit it, her stupid, stupid eyes are beautiful.

She felt a wave of relief settle over her as she made peace with the different sides of herself that had been at war since she met Emma.

In one corner of her mind she had a Kathryn-inspired, romance novelist's voice telling her to break her three year streak of celibacy and just throw herself at the beautiful, mysterious, and seemingly harmless woman.

In the other corner she had a voice that sounded quite similar to her mother's, that voice was still pushing for the axe murderer identity.

For now, admitting that Emma was attractive was enough to post-pone the fight.

"Yeah, probably." Regina heard Emma whisper.

"Hate to break up this conversation, but you got someone at table 9, Regina." Kathryn said as she whizzed by, her own tables filling up fast.

"I have to… you know" Regina waved her arm, motioning to the diner.

"Yeah, it's okay. I have to go back to work anyway." Emma slide out of the booth with Regina. "See you later?" Emma asked while her shoulders lifted slightly in question.

"Of course. Do you need a ride back ho- to the house?" Regina almost said home before stopping herself ...What is wrong with me?

"No, I think I want to walk." Emma replied while scuffing her feet on the ground.

"It's almost three miles…" That was, Regina thought, if Emma took the shortcut she probably didn't know. If she went along the road it was closer to seven.

"I have time."

And with that, Emma was out the door walking back to the docks. Now that Regina knew Emma had watched her while docking the boat, she also became aware that there was, in fact, a perfect view from the crab shack window to where Emma worked.

Regina found herself staring at the woman who was so personable and friendly with the boat owners, smiling so large that you would have thought she was the most carefree person in the world. So I'm not the only one, Regina thought to herself as she remembered how drastically different and broken Emma had looked in the car this morning.

\---------------

Emma walked back to Regina's house later that day after work. She had asked some of the locals the shortest way to go and apparently just taking the beach all the way down would get her there in a little under an hour.

She took the walk slow, alternating between the hot sand and the cool water underneath her feet. The wind whipped through her hair, but again, it provided her comfort. She was used to the sun, the salty air, the quiet. It was home to her.

After about twenty minutes, she rounded an alcove and saw a small shack like beach house hidden next to the dunes. It was slightly run down, but rustically, not in a creepy abandoned house type of way.

Her body felt drawn to it, but she convinced herself to keep moving forward on the beach. She'd got off from work a little later than she'd thought and the sun was beginning to dip down into the ocean, knowing regina would be worried if she wasn't there by dark.

She repeated completely foreign thought in her head. Regina would be worried. A woman she'd met days ago would be worried.

The only comfort Emma found in her confusion, was that she was pretty sure Regina was equally confused at their relationship. It seemed to have come already developed and practiced despite just meeting. And it threw both women completely off balance.

Sure enough when Regina's house came into view the woman and her son sat on the porch, waiting for Emma. She saw Henry point with his finger when he saw her walking up and Regina whispered something in his ear. Something that made him smile.

"We didn't know how long you'd be," Regina said in a way that was almost scolding at Emma for not giving her clearer directions on when she'd be home.

"Sorry," Emma said sheepishly, still not completely sure how she was supposed to act.

"It's okay, just come in for dinner. We made salmon."

"Salmon Emma!"

"Yeah I got that buddy, you like salmon?" Henry had jumped off Regina's lap and now put his hand in Emma's limply hanging one. She tightened her hand around the little hand that was now in her own.

Henry tugged on Emma's hand until she leaned down, face to face with him, inches away his eyes widened, "I LOVE salmon."

Emma chuckled, this boy was definitely the cutest little kid she'd ever met, she'd give him that.

\---------------

They ate dinner in a surprisingly domestic manner, passing the plates around and wiping off Henry's face when it became overwhelmingly slathered with butter.

After dinner Emma walked down the beach while Regina got an unhappy Henry into the bath and to bed. The whirlwind of struggle that she faced every bedtime left her exhausted. She went down stairs after Henry had fallen asleep and wiped down the kitchen counters purely of habit, even though Emma had already done it.

Looking out the window of the kitchen she saw Emma's dark form sitting on the beach, just a few feet from where the water swelled and crashed. She walked out to the beach and noticed how cool the night was, the breeze blew a little stronger than usual, her hair trying against the hair clip to fly free in the wind.

Advancing behind Emma, her heart began to speed up. The blonde hair that she had first seen so knotted and tangled, flowed freely down Emma's back in soft waves. It moved with the wind, some of it falling in front of Emma's shoulder.

Regina's stomach tightened. She struggled to comprehend why, she couldn't understand why her body had such a strange reaction around Emma. Ever since the first time she'd met the woman on the beach, her body hummed constantly with a feeling she couldn't explain. She knew it was trying to tell her something, but whatever it was, she hadn't figured it out just yet.

Emma looked over when Regina sat down next to her, digging her feet further into the cold sand. They didn't say anything for awhile. After Emma's confession this morning, Regina knew the ball was in her court.

"I feel empty." She started while still staring straight forward into the shifting sea.

Emma threw her arms over her bent knees and leaned on her shoulder with her chin to look at Regina.

"It's like, my life isn't really mine. It was created for me, and I had no decision in the matter." Regina spoke again, this time glancing over to Emma who was looking at her intently.

Regina could scramble to explain to Emma that she wasn't just being dramatic. That even though she'd been present in the story that was her life the entire time, it had been decided for her.

She had been told what it was. Where she would live. Who she liked. Who she didn't. She'd been expected to listen to them and agree. To follow what they said. And she did. Which is why right now, she was suffering from it.

"Well then it seems we might be able to help each other out." Emma said, her chin still resting on her shoulder.

"How so?"

"I used to know who I was. I thought I did at least. My life has been filled with pretty awful things happening to me, but at least I thought I had myself. Now I have no idea who I am." Emma pulled her chin off her shoulder and let it hang through her arms.

"Because your parents died?" Regina hesitated before pushing out.

"No. Because of what they told me right before they died."

Emma remembered what her parents had told her. She wanted to be angry. She wanted to scream and punch something.

She wished they were here so she could yell at them and take them by the shoulders and shake some sense into them because how dare they. How dare they take it upon themselves to keep that from her. How dare they rip every shred of reality away from her right before they left her.

Regina heard Emma crying. Not softly or lightly, or even restrained. Sobs shook her body as the tears from her eyes dropped straight into the sand. And Regina knew she should feel awkward, uncomfortable, unsure.

The last time Kathryn had cried she'd had no idea how to comfort her, but with Emma she instantly knew what to do. And god, it freaked her out.

She pulled Emma's hunched over form down so that she was laying on the sand. Her head fell into Regina's lap. Regina ran her fingers through Emma's hair slowly, noticing how soft her blonde waves were. She dragged her fingers in mindless patterns, somehow knowing to use her nails slightly on Emma's scalp.

As she sat there, for whatever amount of time, she wondered if she'd ever done this to someone before.


	6. Chapter 6

That night Regina had the dream.

_"I know I'm going to start getting really fat soon. But I promise right after I have this perfect baby I'll work really hard to get back into shape." Regina heard herself say before a throaty chuckle came from the seat next to her. She felt pressure on her thigh and realized a hand now rested there softly._

_"Just remember what I look like now when I'm craving pickles and ice cream," Regina could hear herself joke, she longed to look over, but the road was so wet and slippery that she kept her eyes peeled on it. Her head glanced to the odometer, checking her speed. Looking back down, she admired the braided bracelet made from the dune reeds that was slipped on her wrist._

_"You promise?" She said when she didn't hear anything beside her._

_And then the tiny dot of bright light grew and grew until it consumed her vision. Her head smashed against the window, as it always did. Regina lurched up from her bed, with a gasp of breath._

Her eyes shot open and she immediately began to pace back and forth next to her bed. She ran her hands through her hair which hung loose and clipless. _What was happening?_ She'd had that dream for six years. Six years. At least once week she'd had that same dream. But never, never had she ever said anything in it more than 'you promise?'

It had never been that long. She tilted her head back to look at the shadows that the moon reflected on her bedroom ceiling. _God damn, what was happening?_ She'd been able to deal with the dream solely because it had been a source of consistency in her life.

Every time, it resulted in her gasping awake after the crash, but at least it was always the same. She had known what to expect. But now, she didn't even have that. She continued to pace back and forth for near an hour, no doubt wearing the floor thin. When her body refused to move any longer, she collapsed back into her bed and instantly fell back asleep.

      ---------------

 

For the next week, Emma and Regina decided to leave the conversation about their pasts unfinished. They had both revealed more to each other the night than they had to others, probably ever. Since they had their own demons they were currently wrestling with, they also knew that it probably best not to push too far. Plus, there was also the pesky fact that Emma's debit would be delivered any minute. Once she had it, she had the freedom to go as far away as she wanted. And the thought of her life going back to what it had been, was unbearable to Regina.

Regina piled the dirty cups and plates onto her tray and carried them to the back, her head craning to look at the window while she walked by. There, Emma stood, as she did every day, doing some odd job for the dock owner. Today, she was transporting supplies that a shipping boat must have brought over from another harbor. Regina watched as Emma joined the men in lifting and heaving wooden boxes and crates across the dock.

Since she was now getting paid, Emma finally obtained enough money to buy herself some stuff. Regina told her it really wasn't a problem, but Emma insisted on buying herself a new wardrobe. She'd often show up at the house after work with a new outfit and some fresh fish or crab that the local fisherman had brought in for the day. Now nourished, strong, and tanned from her job, Emma had transformed from the sickly, half-dead woman on the beach to a complete beauty.

Her bruises had faded and her lip cut was barely noticeable. And boy, had the town responded accordingly. Emma had a line of suitors wherever she went. She was fresh bait to the sleepy town. Most of the people in it had lived there their entire life and to see someone new in it, that was not too shabby to look at, had them all going crazy. Regina was no more immune to Emma's charms than anyone else was. Sometimes, much to her embarrassment, she felt her body aching for the woman.

She would make excuses to herself, well it has been three years, but she knew it was more than that. She felt an unexplainable draw to Emma, and not just in a sexual way. In an everything way. For the first time in her life she wanted to release everything that had been bumbling and stewing inside of her. In fact, the only reason she hadn't was because of the inevitable end date that loomed over their head. S _he probably hated that she was stuck here,_ Regina thought miserably. Her family had been fisherman after all, she had spent every other week visiting a new town. Why would she want to stay in this one?

\--------------

 

Emma heaved another crate over her shoulder, carrying it off the boat to the pavement just above the docks where a small pile was growing. After dropping it down with a thud, she turned around, ready for another. A burly man with a scraggly beard and piercing grey eyes stopped her just before she walked onto the boat.

"Swan!" He said, his eyes twinkling. Emma could spot a fisherman from a mile away. She'd grown up around their type her whole life. They had a weathered look to them and more often than not they had impressive beards. Plus, they always seemed to smell like either fish from their work, or lemon as they rubbed it over their hands to cover up the fish smell.

"Excuse me?" Emma narrowed her eyes, no one knew her last name here. She'd kept to herself for some unknown reason.

"Swan! I haven't seen you in ages." The man looked like he was going to hug Emma, but she took an uncomfortable step back.

"I'm sorry, I don't know you." She said awkwardly to the man who was now lowering his arms. "You used to call me Silver!" He searched her eyes for some recognition, but found only confusion.

"Yeah. I think you have the wrong person."

"I don't think so. I'd never forget those eyes, but maybe." He realized no matter how hard he pushed, this woman was not going to remember him. He gave her a polite nod and continued to unload his boat.

Emma checked her watch. Lunch time. She walked from the docks and into the crab shack in confusion. Her skin glistening with sweat from her exertion. She collapsed into a booth, greeting many of the locals she had gotten the chance to meet through her job. For only being in the town for a week, she felt pretty adapted. Kathryn, who had grown fondly of the woman, went up to the blonde's table.

"Hey-"

"Sorry I'm gross. It's really hot out there." Emma leaned her back against the wall and shot a crooked smile at Kathryn.

"Well you look great, hot stuff" Kathryn had begun to call Emma hot stuff after several men professed their unrequited love for her in the crab shack one day. When Kathryn had gotten wind of it she made fun of her new friend for a good hour before she finally relented.

"Yeah, yeah. Can I get a coke?" Emma waved Kathryn off, her white teeth showing behind her growing smile.

"You got it." Kathryn replied before jumping to the next table to take their order. Regina saw Emma sitting in a booth and rushed to finish her table's orders, giving them to the cook in the back before heading over to the blonde's booth.

"How's your day?" Regina attempted to say casually, but Emma's skin was flushed and glistening and Regina strangely found it a turn on. ''Some fishmeran called me Swan," Emma began as she took out her hair tie, shook around her hair and then ran her fingers through it to put it back up.

"'Swan?" Regina said distractedly, watching Emma's biceps flex as she wrapped her black hair tie around her ponytail once. twice. three times.

"Yeah, my last name."

"Swan." Regina repeated again, liking the way it rolled off her tongue.

She realized she was just repeating Emma's last name without going anywhere with it and soon recovered, "Have you ever met him before?"

"No I haven't, which is the weird part. He kept saying he knew me, that he wouldn't forget my eyes, but I've never seen him in my life." Emma tightened her lips in concentration, racking her brain for any possible time she could have met the man.

"Well you said that your family were fisherman. Do you think you might have come here when you were really small to sell the fish at the docks?" It seemed logical to Regina, and also a little exciting to know that she might have gotten a past glimpse at Emma without even realizing it as a child.

"We fished along this coast, but as we made our way up, we always skipped this harbor. My parents said there were pretty strong currents around here so if you got caught in a storm it was hard to get back out. They said the last time they sold fish here was before I was born."

"Ah, Well perhaps he saw you at a different dock."

"Yeah, probably." Emma replied with a shrug, giving up on trying to figure out the strange situation. Just as Regina was going to walk away to check on her other guests, Kathryn walked up behind them holding an envelope in her hand.

"This came for you, hot stuff."

"Kathryn! Don't call her that." Regina scolded, unsure if Kathryn's teasing nickname for Emma made her feel jealous or just reminded her that she was currently attracted to a woman that would be leaving her life in a matter of days, possibly hours from the look at the envelope in Kathryn's hand. Emma grinned at Regina before reaching for the envelope. She ripped it open and pulled out the plastic debit card she'd been waiting for.

For awhile, all three of them just stared at the black card that sat on the table without saying a word. With that single rectangle, Emma would disappear from their life as if she'd never been there. It was an unusual situation. Emma didn't even know if she and Regina were friends now that she thought about it. _Would she stay in touch? She felt more connected to Regina than she had to any else for as long as she could remember, which made absolutely zero sense considering the timeline. But were they friends?_ They weren't, Emma decided. They had skipped that stage somehow. She realized she had no idea what they were.

"I should probably go check to make sure it works."She said before sipping her coke once, "Keep this for me Kathryn? I'll be right back." Emma said kind of shakily. She slid out of the booth and exited the crab shack, making her way over to the bank a couple storefronts down. Kathryn shoved Regina into the booth and sat down across the table.

"What are you going to do!" Kathryn screeched while looking at Regina with wide eyes.

"What do you mean?" Regina said in her pretend casual voice. She looked at her cuticle in order to show how disinterested she was that Emma was leaving. Her hands were trembling though, which completely ruined her cover. Kathryn grabbed Regina's hand and wrapped it in her own.

"You're constantly saying how you have no idea who you are, or how nothing happends here. Well something exciting and new is happening and she's five foot seven and blonde. You've been less robotic and more you around her than I've seen in years. I get like an hour of the real you a day, that woman gets it 24/7."

"Kathryn, I'm sorr-"

"No!" Kathryn said a little louder, frustrated at how the words came out of her mouth, "I'm not jealous, I just want you to be happy. She's going to walk out and never come back if you don't do something quick."

"I've known her for a week….she can't mean that much to me."

"Is that how you really feel, or are you just telling yourself that?"

"It doesn't make sense Kath! I feel like I've known her all my life but it's been one week. It doesn't make sense!" Regina said exasperatedly as she ripped her hand away from Kathryn and dropped her head into her now open hands. She felt like she was going crazy. Emma was driving her crazy.

"If she goes, you'll never figure out why that is." Regina opened her mouth to respond and saw Emma enter back through the wooden door. She saw the women and walked over, running her fingers through her hair.

"It works," Emma said glumly as she dropped a small stack of bills on the table in front of Regina. Regina looked up at her, down back at the bills, and then back up at Emma.

"What's that?"

"Oh, I mean you paid for my meals, and I stayed at your house, and borrowed your clothes so I thought I'd pay you back."

"It's not necessary," Regina slid the stack back on the table closer to Emma.

"I insist." Emma put her hand on top of Regina's and slid both the stack of her money and her hand back towards Regina. Kathryn wanted to punch them both in the face. She was dealing with two idiots. She watched as Emma's hand lingered longer than necessary on Regina's and rolled her eyes at the obviousness they both refused to see. Kathryn didn't give a fuck if they'd known only known each other for a week, or that Emma was still a complete mystery. Something was happening here.

"So I'll just go tell my boss that I'm leaving I guess and I'll call a taxi or something." Emma shrugged, she searched for a reason to prolong the inevitable, but it wasn't like she had any personal belongings at Regina's house. Regina and Kathryn just stared at Emma _._

_This is not happening. This is not happening. This is not happening._

The endless loop of chanting ran through Regina's hand as she watched Emma take a couple steps back.

"Thank you for everything. Seriously. And tell Henry I said bye. And bye, I guess." Emma had wanted to be a little more articulate to the woman who had saved her life, but they were both just staring at her.

 _This is not happening. This is not happening. This is not happening_.

When the door jingled shut and Emma's blonde hair had disappeared behind it Kathryn turned back to Regina. This is not happening. This is not happening. This is not happening.

"I just want you to know, you left me no choice." Kathryn said as she pulled Regina up from the booth. When they stood face to face Kathryn sighed, "you'll thank me for this later." And with that Kathryn wound up her arm, her hand open, and smacked the shit…out of herself.

Her open palm made a loud sound as it made contact with her own cheek. Regina's best friend screamed dramatically after she slapped herself, holding the now red splotch on her cheek and whimpering in pain. Regina stared at her like she was insane, which considering her latest stunt, was pretty possible.

"What happened!" Granny screamed from the back, peeking her head out and seeing Kathryn hunched over almost crying. She looked and saw Regina standing across from her with wide eyes.

"Mills! We do not condone violence here. Whatever issue you and Kathryn have, you'll deal with it after work. You're done for today. Take the apron off." Granny returned back kitchen when she saw Regina, still shell-shocked, untying her apron. Kathryn smiled nervously at Regina an stood back up.

"Go get em, tiger." Regina debated between reddening Kathryn's other cheek with a slap of her own, but thought about Emma getting on the taxi and leaving her forever. She decided she'd deal with Kathryn later and jogged out the door, throwing her apron at Kathryn's face as she opened the door of the crab shack and looked around frantically.

\---------------

 

Emma was sitting on the bench under the bus stop sign. She looked at the ground and swung her feet back and forth mindlessly.

"Hi." Emma heard a soft voice behind her say. She looked over her shoulder and saw Regina standing there in her waitressing outfit, looking like she might pass out. Emma couldn't tell if she was nervous, or unsure about herself, she kinda looked a little pissed, too.

"Hey." Emma responded and returned her gaze back down to her feet. Why'd she have to come say bye? It's just making it harder. Emma continued to pout to herself as Regina rounded the bench and sat down next to her.

"Where are you going?" Regina asked, curious, but also dreading the answer. Emma sighed heavily.

"I don't know."

"Then why are you leaving?" Emma's eyes shot up from the ground and looked at Regina's swirling brown ones.

"What do you mean? I can't stay here."

"Why not?" Regina was prepared to fight for Emma to stay now. By smacking herself, Kathryn had figuratively smacked some sense into Regina.

"I don't know I just. I don't know." They both sat there in silence for a little before Regina spoke up again.

"Remember when you said when you looked at me while driving the boat you remembered where you were?" Emma nodded.

"When I look at you, I remember who I am." Regina replied, knowing that Emma had no idea the enormity of this statement.

"And I don't know why, because I know we just met, but I need you to stay, if you want. Because I can't bear going back to who I used to-"

"Okay." Emma turned her head to look at the brunette beside her. Regina had been ready to pay off the taxi driver to drive away without Emma, so the words that came out of the blonde's mouth went almost deaf to her ears."

"Okay?"

"Okay." Emma shrugged her tanned shoulders as a crooked smile spread across her face. 


	7. Chapter 7

There had been a brief conflict on whether Emma would remain living in Regina's house, and at what price. In the end, Regina won. Kind of.

Emma insisted she would pay rent, but Regina insisted no more sleeping on the porch like some kind of beggar. Instead, she moved Emma into the guest room.

Later that night, Emma had to admit, sinking into anything that wasn't a thinly padded porch swing was felt amazing. Her eyes drifted closed within a matter of seconds.

_"Mom! Check this boat out." Emma heard herself say as she glanced back at her mother who was fiddling around with something on the deck. The pixie haired woman remained hunched over, so Emma tried again._

_"Dad! Look at that!" Her dad looked up as he heaved a box of ice packed fish off the boat._

_"Wow, would you look at that." He went and stood next to Emma as they both admired a brand new fishing boat with state of the art gadgets._

_"Isn't she a beaut?" A man with a short beard said as he admired the boat with them._

_"Is she yours?" Emma asked with wide eyes._

_"Sure is. I'm Bernie." He held out his hand and Emma shook it firmly. He must be a great fisherman to be able to afford that, she thought to herself._

_"Bernie? That's an awful fisherman name. You're more of a…" Emma looked up at the man whose eyes were a sharp grey. They stood out distinctly against his tan skin, "Silver" she finished._

_"Silver eh? I like it. And what do I call you?" He smiled largely and his eyes squinted correspondingly._

_"Call me Swan."_

Emma's eyes snapped open as she replied the dream in her head. She wondered why the situation with the man at the docks had rattled her so much that it caused her to have a dream about it. It seemed her subconscious was so unsettled by his presence that it had taken it upon itself to fill in the gaps.

In the middle of trying to decipher the meaning of her dream Henry ran into Emma's room, as he did every morning, to wake her up. It was even less effort now because he only had to walk down two door to her room versus walking all the way out to the porch.

He woke her up at six this morning and because Emma knew how tired Regina was from work, she allowed her to sleep. She fed Henry and left the brunette a note on the counter while she and the little boy went to play on the beach. They walked along the sand as the dream Emma had that night settled in her head.

* * *

 

 

Meanwhile, in the brightness of the early morning, Regina lay soundly asleep in her bed, having a dream of her own. Although this time, it wasn't _the_ dream.

_"Why are you looking at me like that?" Regina heard herself say to Emma who was staring at her with a knowing smirk on her face._

_"You're ridiculous." Emma replied, her smirk growing into a brilliant grin._

_"How am I ridiculous! I just met you and you're staring at me like that. It's weird." Regina felt herself roll her eyes, but the corners of her lips turned upwards slightly. She could feel her heart quicken in her chest._

_"I'm just waiting for you to catch up." Emma responded with a small shrug of her shoulders._

_"Catch up to what?"_

_"To this." Emma leaned forward and pressed her lips into Regina's softly. She held it there for a second before pulling back slowly. Regina's head leaned forward to capture as much of the kiss as she could before Emma's lips retreated from her own._

Regina's eyes drifted open slowly this time, her mind playing and replaying the dream she had immediately. She groaned as she hid her head in the blanket. It was bad enough the woman was having such a debilitating effect on her when she was awake. She couldn't handle her infiltrating her dreams too.

* * *

 

 

"Emma. Are you staying here forever?" Henry walked along the beach just high enough off the shore so the ocean would wet his feet, but not so much that it would advance up to his ankles.

"Um, I don't know kid. Want me to leave?"

"No, I like you. You let me drive cars on your head. My mom never lets me." Henry said as he looked up to Emma with shining eyes.

"Well, I'm glad that's what won you over."

"Yeah." Henry sighed as he stopped and dug his feet far into the sand.

When Emma realized he had stopped she went back and stood next to him, waiting for him to finish whatever he was doing. She glanced around and saw a familiar reed like plant growing in the dunes.

Running over quickly, she plucked one from the ground and sat down on the sand while still keeping an eye on Henry. While standing there, he had found another sand crab crawling around and prodded it with a stick he found. Always with the stick.

He got bored with the crab twenty minutes later, walking back to where Emma was sitting.

"What are you doing Emma?" Henry leaned onto her bent knees with his chest and craned his neck to look at her rapidly moving fingers.

"You'll see, just one….second." She pulled a knot tight and held up her creation to Henry. It was a tiny little braided bracelet made from the fibers of the reed. She'd been making them her whole life. Her mother used to grab a handful of reeds before they would set out on a long fishing trip and she and Emma would braid them into different designs while Emma's father drove the boat to wherever their next fishing destination was.

"Cool!" Henry held out his wrist as Emma slipped it on and tightened it with the two braided fibers that hung down. He looked at his wrist and twisted it around to inspect it from all angles.

"Come on bud, let's go see if your mom is awake."

"I'm gonna show her this!" He held his arm out as if Emma had just given him the most precious, fragile gift he'd ever received in his life. He remained holding his arm slightly away from his body until they reached the house.

* * *

 

 

Regina sat on the porch reading a newspaper, small reading glasses sat on the end of her nose. She was so absorbed in the paper she didn't see Emma and Henry until they were walking up the steps. Looking up over the frames of her glasses, she lowered the newspaper slightly.

"I like your glasses" Emma said honesty, a light pink blush appearing on her cheeks. Regina ripped the glasses off her face, scolding herself for forgetting she was even wearing them.

"No. I don't think you understood. I said I like them," Emma jumped up the top step, took the glasses from Regina's hand and put them back on her face, making sure not to poke her in the eye with the end.

Regina sat frozen as Emma's face leaned in dangerously close to her own, "That means, you should wear them." Emma finished, looking back at her handy work now that the glasses rested back on Regina's face. Regina smiled softly and looked back down at her paper, unsure if she would be able to reply without her voice wavering.

"MOM, LOOK WHAT EMMA MADE ME," Henry burst in between the two woman and held out his arm as if his life depended on it.

"What is it, honey?" Regina fixed her glasses slightly to look through them, glancing up to Emma as they exchanged a smirk. Regina looked at the intricately braided bracelet that sat on his arm. Turning his wrist over, she saw the zig-zag pattern that made it adjustable to Henry's wrist. Her heart stopped. Her jaw slacked. She ripped off her glasses.

"You made this?" She asked in a slightly trembling voice.

"Yeah…" Emma looked at Regina questioningly, unable to tell exactly what she was thinking.

Regina pushed her chair back and ran inside to the kitchen. She leaned against the kitchen wall, tilting her head back. What's happening? She felt like crying. She might already be crying. That bracelet had been in the dream. Just the other night, when she had the longer version of the dream she remembered distinctly looking down at her wrist, that exact bracelet on it.

She remembered because in her dream, she could practically feel how much she loved the damn thing. But how? _I've never seen it before in my life_.

Her stomach churned and for a second there she thought she might be sick. She'd felt crazy, but never so crazy that she thought she might lose it. Before she was able to further evaluate the chance she was going to vomit, Emma burst through the kitchen doorway with wide eyes.

"What's wrong?" She looked at Regina up and down just to check for any sign that she was hurt. The only thing she saw on Regina's face was confusion.

"What's wrong?" The blonde woman repeated. Regina just stood there, leaning her head back against the wall and closing her eyes. There was no way it was possible. I know I've never seen that bracelet besides in my dream.

"I just don't think- I don't know if- And I can't-" Regina was reduced to a blubbering fool. She had no idea how she was going to explain that just because she had seen the bracelet Emma made, before in her dream, her life felt like it was spinning out of control. Emma saw the condition that Regina was in and empathized with the woman who looked like her world was slipping away from her.

"I think it's time I told you about how I ended up here." Emma said quietly. She told Regina to stay put, and left for two seconds to put on a movie for Henry, returning to the paralyzed woman who had slid down the wall so that she was sitting.

Emma joined her, leaning her own back against the kitchen wall. They sat side by side just as they had against the bait shop. Emma scootched closer to Regina so that the sides of their legs were touching. Somehow, she knew Regina needed it.

"My whole life I traveled around the ocean with my family. They were fisherman, like I told you. So we'd spend the summer on the boat catching fish and then going to harbors to sell it. I loved it. Every minute of it." Regina listened to Emma as she looked at the spot where their knees were touching. If she focused on that one point of contact, she was able to remain grounded.

"A week ago when we were out, the fish were biting. We caught more fish than we could manage. So much that we had to stop at some harbors we don't usually right near here. We saw the seas getting kind of rough, but my Dad said that he'd be able to get us around it. My parents spent a lot of time whispering behind closed doors though, so I kind of had a feeling that it was more serious than he'd let on. One night, I could feel the boat rocking more than usual, it was jerking around rather than just rolling back and forth," Emma looked at Regina who was resting her head against the wall, absorbed in Emma's story.

Emma continued, preparing herself for the hard part that was about to come. "I woke up in the middle of the night to them screaming back and forth on the deck. The wind was too strong and it was blowing us off course, there wasn't really much we could do except for man the wheel. Anyway, my mom pulled me aside, I guess she knew that something bad was going to happen. She told me…" Emma trailed off.

She wasn't ready to reveal that just yet, she couldn't. She didn't even completely understand it herself. Regina saw the blonde woman struggling beside her and did something that felt so natural at the time. She reached out her hand and interlaced it with Emma's.

"Let's just say she told me something that changed a lot. Within ten minutes, water was spilling over the deck and the boat was almost tipping completely to the side with each gust of wind. I remember my dad screaming at me from the wheel. He told me to find my mother. So I ran to the other side of the deck, I couldn't find her. When I ran back, he was gone," Regina held on tighter to Emma's hand and looked over, seeing tears fall slowly down Emma's face. They weren't angry sobs though, ones that cried out for justice, revenge. They were surprisingly the opposite. Ones of cathartic release.

"My mom was launched off the side of boat. She was hanging on the nets hanging off the sides, but I couldn't get to her in time." Emma looked down at her and Regina's joint hands.

"How did you survive?" Regina asked, her voice scratchy from lack of use. "I got launched off the boat as well, but there was a lifejacket floating near and I grabbed onto it. I hung on for awhile, but I passed out after a couple hours and woke up to Henry poking me on the beach."

They both remained against the wall, the information that had just been revealed swirling around between them. Their hands remained tangled, the sides of their bodies touching completely. In the silence they could hear clips from Henry's movie. But they didn't move. They just sat there. Because at that moment, right there, it was the only place they felt completely comfortable.


	8. Chapter 8

As if she hadn't had enough confusing dreams already, that night Emma's head whirled with them. Most of them being snapshots of scenes, but the last one, the last one was something different.

_"You can tell me."_

_"Tell you what?"_

_"What are you trying to hide?"_

_"How do you know I'm trying to hide something?"_

_"I just do."_

_"You just…do?"_

_"Yeah."_

_"But I-"_

_"You don't have to. I just thought it'd be nice for you to be able to tell someone who you'd probably never see again after a week." Regina sat on the bench outside the crab shack wringing her hands in her lap. She looked at Emma._

_"I'm pregnant." Regina said as she jerked her head up to look at Emma's reaction._

_"That's all?"_

_"That's all? My mother will disown me. My life is over."_

_"Nah, it's gonna keep going. Just in a different direction." Emma scootched closer to Regina on the bench so that the sides of their thighs grazed. She nudged Regina slightly._

_"Plus, I heard pregnant woman are practically glowing." She smirked at Regina whose own face slowly ascended from the darkness it had been in._

Emma's dreams seemed to fade to a close leaving only enough time for another one to begin.

_Emma saw herself walking along the beach, dunes on one side, the ocean on the other. An old house was hidden slightly in an alcove. She and Regina stood on the beach while the ocean waves swirled around their ankles and buried their feet in the sand. Emma had a reed in her hands and she moved her fingers quickly while Regina just stood, staring peacefully into the ocean._

_Emma tightened the last knot and pulled her feet out of the three inch deep sinkhole they wre stuck in._

_"Here," Emma handed the braided bracelet to Regina who just held it in her hands, staring at it._

_"You made this?"_

_"Yep, never met anyone else that could make one like that so it's pretty special." Emma pointed to the intricate knots on the back that allowed the bracelet to be adjusted for different wrist sizes._

_"It's for me?"_

_"Of course" Emma took the bracelet out of Regina's hand and slid in on her wrist, pulling the two strings so that it tightened just enough, "Oh, I made one for the baby too…" Emma pulled out another miniature bracelet from her pocket. It was identical to the one that Regina now had on her wrist. Emma looked up at Regina's eyes which were dangerously close to spilling over with tears._

_"My Mom said I wasn't welcome back in the house unless I got rid of it." She admitted with a quivered lip._

_"Oh, Regina. I'm sure it was just the shock." Emma walked closer to the brunette woman who had her heart pumping out of her chest on a daily basis._

_"I don't want to go back." Regina replied as her voice hitched._

_"Where do you want to go?" Emma asked casually._

_"Anywhere."_

_"You know what?" Emma tilted Regina's downturned face up by her chin, "I've been wanting to go anywhere myself."_

_Regina smiled at Emma through her tears before grabbing the blonde woman and pulling her in for a hug._

Emma woke slightly, feeling the hug from Regina dissipate as her eyes blinked a few more times. She glanced at the clock and after realizing it was still the middle of the night, slipped back into the sleep that was so active with thoughts it wasn't restful at all. It was exhausting.

_"We're really doing this?" Emma watched Regina look over at her from the drivers seat._

_"We're really doing this."_

_"And you're not going to regret it?"_

_"Regina, I've gone through my life doing a lot of stupid things, and this is not one of them. I love you. There is nothing right now that I know more certain about than that." Emma leaned her head against the passenger's seat headrest, looking at the beautiful woman beside her. It was hard to see Regina's face through the pitch black since the moonlight had been covered by the clouds. Regina gripped the steering wheel tightly as she focused on the wet roads that they drove over._

_"I know I'm going to start getting really fat soon. But I promise right after I have this perfect baby I'll work really hard to get back into shape." Emma watched Regina say with a smile on her face. The blonde knew that even though the brunette pretended to hate the condition she'd be in while pregnant, she securely loved the fact that new life was growing within her._

_"Just remember what I look like now when I'm craving pickles and ice cream," Regina added while Emma began to shake her head humorously and looked out the window to watch the town she had entered only a week ago fly by the window._

_"You promise?" Regina broke the silence. Emma knew Regina was trying to give her one more free pass out, but she wasn't going anywhere. Not a chance. She opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, the headlight of another car began to grow in their windshield so that all Emma could see was brightness. She felt the car swerve to the side suddenly._

_The last thing she heard before her head slammed in front of her on the dashboard was the sickening thud of Regina's head smashing into glass._

When the sun creeped up the next morning, Emma laid in her bed, completely confused. She thought back to the stormy night on the boat. The night that her parents had died. She squeezed her eyes closed, wishing that she wouldn't remember. Wishing that she could just go back to sleep instead. It came anyway.

_"Emma." Her mother appeared below the deck where Emma sat staring at a map, trying to find any way possible out of the storm that was quickly surrounding them._

_"Mom, I think I can-" Emma's eyes were frantically flashing between maps, the radar that blinked, and the weather reports that were spitting out of the whirling machine on the wall._

_"Emma." Emma finally tore her eyes away from the maps reluctantly. She swallowed heavily, begging the thump in her throat to go away. Emma's mother looked at her with eyes that showed acceptance of their fate. Emma's on the other hand still denied what was coming._

_"I need to tell you something." Emma's mother said softly, pulling a little box out from behind her back._

_"No." Emma shook her head, and bit down on her lip to stop the sounds that were bubbling in her throat from escaping through her mouth, "Whatever last thing you're going to say to me can wait until after the storm. It can wait until we're on shore. Okay?" Emma was struggling to see through the distortion that the salty moisture in her eyes was causing._

_"Emma. I need you to know this okay. I need you to." The older woman sat down at the table across from Emma, giving the younger woman a look that begged for her to just hear her out._

_"Six years ago. When we told you that you hit your head on the deck of the boat and you were in a coma for a week-"_

_"What do you mean you told me?" Emma felt an intense sense of dread settle in the pit of her stomach. Emma's mother was struggling to get the next words out. Emma watched her eyes flicker around nervously, looking more guilty than she'd ever seen someone look in their entire life._

_"You weren't in a coma Emma. You had amnesia. I didn't want to tell you because that week- during that week-" Sobs burst from the older woman's throat now. Emma felt her heart shrink from within her until it was nothing. Until all that was left of her was a hollow vessel._

_"Mom…what happened during that week? What don't I remember about my own life?" Emma's voice was trembling and she struggled to push it out loud enough so that it could be heard over the rumbling of the thunder. All of the sudden, from up above, Emma heard her Dad screaming for them. They felt the boat tip to one side and most of the supplies in the room fell off the shelves. Chairs slid to one wall as pictures fell down and shattered on the ground. Emma and her mother pushed back their chairs to stand. Just before Emma put a foot up on the ladder to climb up, she felt a hand on her back._

_"Take this. You'll know what it is when you remember." Emma's mom shoved a rock into Emma's hand and scrambled up the ladder before whispering one more, "I'm sorry" into Emma's ear. Emma shoved the rock into her pocket, not having the focus to even think about how her mother knew she would remember, or if she even would remember. All she could think about right now was that they were currently getting rocked mercilessly at the will of the storm._

Emma opened her eyes once the flashback ended, tears running down either side of her face and collecting around her ears. She rolled onto her side and curled up in a little ball. Everything in her brain from the night before was all clumped together in one confusing, chaotic haze that seemed to swirl faster and faster.

Kicking off her blankets, she stumbled out of her room, desperate to get out of her own head. Henry was still asleep, surprisingly, so Emma turned to the one thing that seemed to always be there to comfort her. The ocean. She walked along the beach, her hair flying wildly in the wind. The sun beat down hard on her bare shoulders and she contemplated going for a morning swim to cool off. Without really thinking about it, she walked down to where Henry had found her washed up on shore. The small piles of driftwood that had sat inches away from her face remained.

She kicked them around with her bare toes. She struggled to remember anything from the time she'd spent hours floating around in the ocean, she'd been so exhausted and week that it all seemed like a blur. She did remember one thing though, she vaguely recalled clutching the rock in her hand while she drifted into unconsciousness on the life jacket.

When she'd woke up on the beach, it had been gone though. She flipped another piece of drift wood away with her foot and replaced her foot to do the same to another, but from under the sand she saw something sticking out slightly. She leaned down and dug away from the grey shard that stuck out.

Slowly, the sand fell away as she pulled out a rock. The rock. The rock her mother had shoved in her hand. The rock that held the key to her past. The rock that would help her remember. Curling her fingers around it, her palm ached slightly.

She opened her fingers back up and looked down, realizing that the blistering slash around her palm was a perfect mold of uneven and sharp edges of the rock. Emma clutched her hand around it again. She had held onto this rock with all her might for hours as she drifted. Even in her unconscious state, she held onto the rock, only letting it go when she finally made it to land. Lifting up her palm so the rock was at eye level, she got a closer look at the jagged grey object.

After a few seconds, she rubbed her finger over it slightly. And that's when they came, the flashing scenes behind her eyes.

Her family docking at the harbor because of the stormy weather.

Emma looked back down at the rock, her eyebrows furrowing.

Looking at Silver's boat.

She glanced up at the ocean, wondering if she could still be dreaming when she was still awake.

Regina taking her order at the crab shack, her mother and father sitting at the table next to her. Emma's eyes flickered around, confused. Begging for whatever was happening to her to stop. But they only came faster.

Talking to Regina outside on the bench.

Regina telling her she was pregnant.

Taking Regina on a date that only she knew was a date.

They whirled around so fast in Emma's head that instead of being clips, they just blended together into one.

Walking on the beach with Regina. Kissing Regina. Defending Regina. Finding the old house with Regina. Driving a sailboat with Regina. Gazing at stars with Regina. Falling in love with Regina. 

Emma looked at the rock that was now held in her trembling hand. She knew what it was. She knew everything now. Why getting to know Regina felt like a strong case of deja vu. Why looking at Regina kept her grounded. Why upon seeing the woman for the first after opening her eyes on the beach, she felt that she was exactly where she needed to be. She knew all this was because she finally realized one simple thing. One single detail that changed everything.

That all of her dreams, weren't that.

They were memories.


	9. Chapter 9

Emma threw open the door to the house with a loud bang. If an onlooker would have seen her in this moment, they would have thought that she had, in fact, turned into the axe murderer that Regina had feared the entire time.

She looked around frantically, completely unsure of what to do with the knowledge she had now. Despite the shred of light that shone on the situation though, there were still some things that didn't add up though.

She needed answers.

Sprinting up the stairs, she stopped suddenly in the upstairs landing. For a couple minutes all she could do was pace in front of Regina's bedroom door, running her hands through her hair frantically.

Finally, in a mostly spontaneous decision, she pounded on the door three times.

Her knocks echoed through the hallway harshly, and she regretted how hard she'd rapped her knuckles on the wood. Regina shouted from behind the door, "Come in".

She bit down on her lip and clenched the rock still in her palm tighter, the fragile new skin there breaking open. With her other hand, she wrapped her fingers around the doorknob and turned.

Regina was wearing her waitressing outfit, she had work that afternoon, and walked out of her bathroom while struggling to put the back of her earring on. There, in the doorway she saw Emma standing stiffly. Regina had never seen Emma's eyes so bright and piercing before. She was mesmerized by them for a little before snapping out of it.

"Good morning." She said cheerfully, warmth spreading over her cheeks as it did whenever she saw Emma. The blonde didn't respond, she only stood there with a blank face. Regina waited for Emma to say something, but seconds passed and she still hadn't moved, seemingly shocked into a stupor.

"Are you okay?" Regina walked slowly toward Emma, finally getting the back on her earring and pushing it forward. She walked until she was a few inches away from the other woman but as she neared, Emma, who had been staring at her intently the whole time, took a couple steps away from Regina until her back hit the wall.

"Emma?"

"Why do you feel empty?" Emma burst out, her face remaining completely passive but her heart beating like crazy in her chest. Regina's face dropped, knowing now was the time she'd been waiting fearfully for. The time when Emma would demand answers. She, after all, had told most of her story and Regina had revealed next to nothing.

"I-"

"Why do you feel empty!" Emma repeated urgently. She needed to know. She needed to know if she was going completely crazy, or if the woman standing in front of her was the one that she'd fallen in love with, not once, but twice.

"I was in an accident." Regina's head was pounding. She'd never told anyone this before. She knew that if people were aware that she was just pretending to know who she was, or why did things, that they would treat her differently. Emma sucked in her cheeks, not sure if she was dreading or looking forward to hearing more.

On one hand, if Regina's story matched up to her own, Emma woud know she wasn't crazy, that it had all been real. On the other hand, it would mean that Regina was completely ignorant to their past, ignorant to everything they'd gone through. It would mean that Regina only knew her as the woman that had washed up on the beach.

"I got into a car crash, and when I woke up I had amnesia. I lost the memories of a good three months of my life." Regina's voice trembled at the submission, knowing that Emma probably wouldn't understand what it was like to lose a part of yourself. Tears began to sting Emma's face at the the onslaught of emotions she was having. Despite what Regina thought in that moment, she understand exactly how Regina felt. Emma's heart ached for the woman in front of her. Ignorance seemed to have its perks as she was almost toppled over at the prospect that while she remembered, Regina might not.

"I woke up pregnant without having any idea how I got that way." Regina continued as took a few steps back, needing some space since her body felt like it was turning itself inside out. Emma pressed her back hard into the wall, waiting for only one more piece of information. There was still the one in a lifetime, can't believe it till you see it chance that their memory loss wasn't connected. Yet, that could be the denial talking.

"How long?" Emma asked in a scratchy, cry induced voice.

"How long what?"

"How long ago?" Emma was practically whispering now since her throat was raw from muffling the sobs.

"It happened six years ago." Regina said quietly while looking down at her feet. She glanced back at Emma seconds later and realized that the woman was standing perfectly still, her face completely pale.

"Moooom! Grandma's here!" Henry raced into the room with his hair sticking up at all different angles from sleeping. The moment he whirled into the room, he looked at both of the women standing, tears in their eyes. His face twisted into one of confusion as his breathing slowed.

Emma threw her hand over her mouth as the sobs that had been gathering released in a muffled shriek. It hit her in one firm sucker punch to the stomach that the little boy in front of her was Regina's son. She knew he was Regina's son before. But that was Regina's son. The son that she had rooted for as he grew inside Regina. The son that she promised Regina she'd raise with her. The son that she'd whispered to, despite the fact that he was practically a jumble of cells inside Regina's flat stomach.

She stared at the little boy and a fresh new batch of tears overwhelmed her. She'd missed it. She'd missed all of it. Regina had done what she feared most all those years back. She'd raised him alone.

Regina flicked her eyes between Emma and Henry, having no idea what was going on. She'd spent six years thinking through how the conversation would go when she told someone. She'd always assumed it would be Kathryn. And it would involve pitying eyes, pitying arm rubs, and pitying tears. But Emma's tears weren't looking at her with pity. They were looking at her with devastation. And why did she get so upset now that Henry was here?

Regina finally heard steps outside her door and her mother walked in purposefully.

"Mom, what are you doing here? We usually drop Henry off at your house." Regina was overwhelmed by everything that was going on right now and couldn't seem to focus on one thing at a time. Cora just looked her daughter up and down with a slight disapproving look in her eyes.

"Yes you do, but yesterday your son told me about a certain, treasure, you have living in your house with you." Regina looked guilty for a second before realizing that she wasn't sixteen years old anymore. She squared her shoulders and nodded.

"Yeah," It was the only words she seemed to be able force out of her mouth. Her mother practically foaming at the mouth with anger and she had no idea why. Sure, she always wanted to be in the know, but this was a little dramatic.

"And she has blonde hair and…green eyes?" Cora spat out, her eyes searching around as if something was going to just pop out from behind Regina.

"How would you know that?" Regina answered while her eyes flickered to behind Cora where Emma was standing. Cora followed her line of gaze and spun around on her four inch heels. The minute her eyes met Emma's they narrowed rapidly.

"You." She said in a voice that was made of all venom. Emma instantly recognized the woman now that her memories flowed freely in her head. Her natural instinct to fight flared to life, but she restrained. She wasn't ready for another blood bath yet, she was only getting her bearings on who she was. Emma looked at Regina one more time with pleading eyes before sprinting out the doorway. Regina could hear her stomp all the way down the steps. When the front door slammed closed she turned back to her mother.

"How do you know her?" She knew her mother was controlling. She had manipulated Regina more times than she could count. But somehow, she couldn't find a way to detach herself from the woman. Her mother was the only thing that had remained constant in her memory. She was one of the ony things she was positively sure about when it came to her past. And when Regina was drowning of uncertainty, she held tight to things that kept her afloat, even if she knew it wasn't the best decision.

"She came back for you. I bet it was that mother of hers." Cora growled to herself as she began to pace the floor, wondering how she was going to fix this mess.

"Back? What do you mean back?" The word back kept repeating in her head. Back. Back meant that she had been here before.

"Yes, back." Cora was pacing faster now. She wanted so desperately to make this whole situation go disappear. She'd lost the first battle with the blonde woman, she couldn't stand to lose the second.

"Did I used to know her?" Regina's tone wasn't angry, just confused. Cora knew though, that after she told Regina the story, it would more than just angry.

Cora weighed the two options in her head. Fight to the death, and lose my daughter. Or tell her the truth, and maybe hold onto a shred of her. While she may be manipulative, cunning, sneaky, she knew when to call it quits. Now was that time. Whether she wanted it or not, Emma would convince her of the truth. Cora knew the bond they shared and if Emma couldn't make her remember how they'd been in love, she'd only get her daughter to fall in love with her again.

Emma and Regina together, was a train that couldn't be stopped.

So for once in her life, when it came to her daughter, Cora decided to put Regina first.

"You were running away with her."

"Wha-what?"

"She and her family were fisherman," Cora started from the beginning, wondering if she'd even be able to make it through the whole story before Regina walked out.

"There was a storm and the currents pulled them in while they were out at sea. They didn't want to take any risks so they decided to stay here for a week, til the waters calmed. You met Emma at the crab shack. You were her waitress. Somehow, you two fell in love instantly. You became inseparable within hours of meeting. You'd come home some nights and tell me you'd found the love of your life. At first, I was happy for you, but as you hung more around Emma you gathered the guts to tell me your were pregnant."

Suddenly, a memory of that exact moment flashed in Regina's head.

S _he and Emma walked into her house, their hands interlaced. Emma had whispered that she was there for Regina in her ear. She remember Emma's breath tickling her skin and spreading goosebumps down her arm. They walked into the kitchen where Cora stood chopping vegetables._

_"I have to talk to you," She said to her mother. Cora put down the knife and nodded a friendly greeting to Emma._

_"What is it, Regina?" Regina remembered taking the biggest breath her lungs could possibly hold._

_"I'm pregnant." She'd rushed out quickly, afraid she'd lose her nerve within seconds. She felt Emma squeeze her hand._

_"This is all your fault." Cora pointed at Emma with her now free hand._

_"How is it her fault? She obviously didn't get me pregnant. She's the one who gave me the courage to tell you."_

_"And probably the courage to keep it too," Cora hissed, glancing at the knife quickly and wishing she could pick it up._

_"Yeah, she did. So what! I'm happier now. I finally feel like I can start living again and stop holding my breath!"_

_"What about college, Regina?"_

_"It's not part of the plan right now, mother. I don't know. Maybe after I have the baby."_

_"This is all your fault," Cora repeated, her eyes piercing into Emma's._

_"No. It's not. Maybe if you would just love and accept this fucking perfect daughter you have, you wouldn't be hearing about it like this," Emma screamed, knowing that people like Cora never got anywhere with reason. She grabbed Regina's hand and they rushed out the front door together. She snapped back to reality and saw her mother staring at her intently._

"They're coming back, aren't they?" Cora said softly while taking a few steps to lean against the bed. Regina nodded her head slightly, her eyes wide with fear.

"What do you remember?" Cora asked in a defeated tone.

"I only remember telling you I was pregnant and…Emma was there?" Regina's forehead wrinkled in confusion. Somehow, this memory had fought its way through the haze. Regina waited for more to come so that it would all make sense, but they didn't.

"You were in love with her, Regina." Cora felt a stabbing in her heart. All she had done to shape her daughters life the way she wanted it to be was blowing up in her face, "You were running away from her when you got in the car crash." Regina backed up slowly, one foot stepping behind the other.

"No…" She didn't know Emma. She'd only met her a couple days ago. This didn't make sense. She continued to take steps until her back hit the wall.

"Regina, I'm sorry."

"If this is true. Which I haven't decided if it is…did Emma know the whole time?"

"I don't think so, she had forgotten after too."

"Why-why didn't I know? Why didn't you tell me about her?" Regina's anger came in waves as Cora had predicted it would. She could practically feel her blood escalating to boiling within a matter of seconds. Despite the fact that she still didn't remember, from the sound of it, it seemed as if her mother hadn't wanted her to. She'd never mentioned Emma before, and when she'd seen her, her response hadn't been very welcoming.

"She was going to take you away from me!" Cora said desperately, her eyes were misting at the memeory. She'd been blind with rage in the moment while her daughter ran away from home, but now as she looked back, she'd mostly been upset. Upset at herself for being who she was. Upset for driving Regina away. She'd been hardened by life, and stometimes she didn't know how to act other than cold and calculating.

"So after you got in the accident I took you back. I told her mother that I'd convince you anything they told you was a lie. And I knew you would believe me. Because I'm your mother, and to you, they'd be strangers." Tears welled up in Cora's eyes. She'd felt guilty about this for years.

The fact that she wanted to terminate what was now her beautiful, perfect little Henry made her feel sick. She suppressed the guilt by spoiling him rotten and pouring all her affection into the relationship. Promising herself that she'd do it right this time.

"Her mother didn't want Emma to feel the heartbreak of having know you, but you not know her, so she went along with it. And from what I know, she was never going to tell Emma about you, but she must have since she's here now."

"She washed up on the beach. Her parents died on a shipwreck." Regina blurted out, her mind needing to know if Emma knew or not.

"She just randomly showed up here?"

"Yeah. Henry found her on the beach almost dead."

"Well..." Regina looked at her mother who was now just as puzzled as her. They stared at each other for awhile until Cora sighed, giving up the final ounce of control she had on her daughter's life.

"I would call that fate, dear." Regina's eyes widened and her heart began to beat finally from the frozen state it was previously in.

She didn't remember. She didn't know if she would. But if her dreams had been glimpses at the past, she wanted in. She didn't care if she knew Emma for who she was now, or who she used to be, or both. She wasn't going to let her get away. Cora tilted her head toward the doorway, encouraging Regina to go, a heartbreaking smile on her face. Regina pushed off the wall and sprinted out the door of her bedroom, flying down the stairs as Emma had.

Cora remained in Regina's bedroom, tears finally streaming down her face freely. She remained still, hoping one day, her daughter would forgive her.


	10. Chapter 10

Regina went flying out of her house, Henry sprinting right along side her. He had no idea what was going on but followed anyway. Regina didn't know if Cora was staying and knew she couldn't just leave her son so she grabbed her on her way out of the house.

"Where are we going, Momma? He asked breathlessly as he slowed to a halt, his engine burnt out. Regina slowed along with him, realizing that she had nowhere to run to. Emma could be anywhere.

"We have to find Emma." Regina kneeled down to the boy's face and said to him slowly. He nodded seriously and instantly his eyes began to roam around the beach, now determined to find Emma.

He and Regina walked towards the dunes where there were more hidden spots than the flat, open beach outside their house. Regina stayed close to the shore, looking up and down the beach while Henry explored deeply in the reeds. After pushing away a large thicket to the side, he spotted the blonde haired woman sitting on the edge of a dune. Luckily, she spotted him first and put a finger up to her lips effectively telling him to 'shhh'. He mimicked her and quietly tip-toed over.

"Hi Henry." She said after he crawled comfortably in her lap, completely forgetting the urgency of the situation.

"Hi Emma. My mom is looking for you" He whispered, taking Emma's request to be quiet very seriously.

"I know," Emma responded with a slight smirk as the young boy nuzzled up into her. The time she'd been on dunes since running out of Regina's house, however short it was, had allowed her to clear her head.

With all that was whirling around inside of it, she came up with six things she knew.

Six things she was positive of. The only six things that really mattered.

One. Her parents were dead.

Two. Despite the hurt she felt when she found out they had kept Regina a secret from her, she knew they did it out of love.

Three. She had promised Regina when she was pregnant that she would protect and love the baby growing inside of her no matter what. She looked at Henry sitting on her lap. She would keep that promise.

Four. She had been in love with Regina Mills six years ago.

Five. She was currently in love with Regina Mills.

Six. She was never letting her go again.

"Emma?" Henry turned from her lap and whispered in her ear.

"Yes, Henry?"

"My Mom is looking for you!" This time he said it in a hushed whisper, one that was urgent.

"Look. There she is." Emma pointed down from the dune to the shore where Regina walked into their view. Emma knew they were fairly hidden by the reeds. She watched the brunette woman approach a blanket she'd spread out on the sand. On top of the blanket sat a rock. The rock that Emma had clutched for hours while drifting through the sea. Her mother's very last message to her.

"Watch," Emma whispered in Henry's ear. He leaned back against Emma's chest and watched with wide eye as his mother approached the blanket cautiously. She leaned down and picked up the rock, bringing it to her face.

"What's that?" Henry asked, squinting his eyes to see the small object in Regina's hand.

"A rock. It will help her remember."

"Remember what?"

"Remember me." Emma nudged Henry so he was looking forward, a small smile on her face as he fidgeted around anxiously. Regina saw the blanket and a rock perched on top of it. It was jagged in some parts, round in others. She looked around slightly for a reason why it was here. It seemed so out of place. Leaning over, she picked up the rock and looked at it quizzically. It felt so familiar in her hand, she turned it around with her fingers. When she saw a crack that seemingly separated the rock into two she brought it closer to her face. The crack was kept together by clear glue.

_"This is your most favorite possession?" Regina asked with her eyebrows to her hairline looking at the grey rock that Emma held in her two hands._

_"Yes"_

_"Why?"_

_"Because it's so deceiving. It looks like a plain, boring rock, but when you open it," Emma pulled apart her hands, "you realize it's more."_

_The rock which looked completely unspecial and ordinary in every way, was pulled apart to reveal a near hollow inside. One that was lined with glittering purple crystals. Regina ran her fingers over the crystals gently, they were jagged and pointed out from all different directions, shooting the sunlight every which way as it reflected off of it._

_"Wow." Regina kept fingering the crystals, glancing up at Emma with incredulity._

_"Yeah. I used to want to keep it forever, but I think I have a better idea." Regina reluctantly pulled her hand away from the crystals._

_"What is it?"_

_"Well, I was thinking," Emma looked down at the rock in her hand and blushed, "we're leaving tomorrow and I know you're going to miss this place. I thought it'd be nice to leave a piece of you here forever." Regina tilted her face down, lining her head up with Emma's line of vision so they could make eye contact._

_"And what piece of me are we going to leave here?" Regina smiled softly, encouraging Emma to continue and thinking it was so adorable how suddenly shy the blonde was._

_"Well, we could write something on a piece of paper, put it in the rock, seal it back up, and then throw it in the ocean. And it would sit there. Forever."_

_Emma pushed the two sides of the rock together to demonstrate how there would be space in the crystal encrusted center for the paper, "I don't know, something about knowing you'll be connected to a place even after you die is pretty cool, I think." Regina looked at Emma like she was the most precious thing in the entire world._

_But when Emma didn't hear a response, she immediately got self-conscious "I mean we don't have to-"_

_"I love you," Regina stilled Emma's hands and forced her to look at her. "I love you too" Emma's face lifted as she cupped her hand on Regina's cheek. They leaned together slowly and met in the middle for a lingering kiss._

_"That's what I want to live on even after we die. At the bottom of the ocean. In a rock."_

_"Our love?"_

_"Our love." Regina nodded resolutely and nuzzled her face into the crook of Emma's neck._

_"And how do you plan on materializing our love onto a piece of paper?" Emma looked down at the woman who she could feel smiling against her neck._

_"I have a few ideas." Regina retorted, her lips brushing against Emma's skin as they moved to talk._

Regina gasped, sucking in a sharp breath of air. That had been real. She knew it. She knew it as well as she knew what she had for breakfast that morning. Glancing back down to the rock she realized the floodgates had been unlocked.

She collapsed to the ground, her knees digging into the gritty sand, tears rapidly falling from her eyes. Within seconds, her face streamed with the salty liquid. She cried in pain as she remembered Henry's father deciding once he'd slept with her, he was done.

She cried remembering how lonely and helpless she felt when she realized she would raise a child alone. But then she met Emma. God, how clearly she remembered meeting Emma.

Her blonde hair.

Her crooked smile.

Her mischievous eyes.

Her slightly dimpled cheek that only showed she was smiling so big her face had to hurt.

Her slender fingers.

Her lean legs.

Her blush that would spread from her neck to her cheeks in seconds.

Her tan skin.

Her lips.

Regina sighed. Her lips.

Tears fell down even faster now. They fell for the reason that these memories had been invisible to her all this time. That she's gone all those years without knowing that she'd felt the way she had about Emma. They fell for the reason that she'd been pregnant and raised Henry completely alone when there had been someone who wanted to be there with her. Her body swelled with emotion, waves of anger conflicting with those of sorrow. And all she could do to let it out was cry. So for once, she left nothing inside of her, crying for everything she had missed.

"What's wrong with her Emma?" Henry's eyes were wide as he watched his mother hunched over, crying.

"She's remembering," Emma whispered to herself. She wrapped her arms around the boy, hugging him from behind.

"Henry, what do you say we go make your Mom feel better?"

"Yeah!" Henry lifted up his fist, determined to make his mother smile as he did so often.

"Go get her," Emma lifted Henry up from her lap and he took off, sprinting and sliding down the sand dune to get to his mother. Emma followed slowly, lagging back so she could let Regina have a moment with her son first. Henry crashed into Regina as he finally made it down the slope, tripping and falling.

"Mom, why are you so sad?" Henry wrapped his arms around the brunette's neck as she wrapped her own arms around his back.

"I'm not sad, honey. I'm just remembering some things and it's a lot to take in." Regina had fallen back on the sand when Henry ran into her and now sat down with her legs splayed out. She looked up at Henry with her tear stained faced. Henry put his little hands up to his mother's cheeks and wiped the tears away. Regina let him, a small smile forming on her face.

"I found Emma." He said simply after he rested his hands on her cheeks. Regina's smile only widened.

"Yeah, me too." She responded while glancing atop Henry's head where she saw Emma standing, her hands in her back pockets, looking on. Henry turned around to see where his mom was looking and yelled to Emma.

"I made her feel better Emma. It's your turn!" He twisted around in Regina's arms and ran over to the blonde, his arms flying around in the self-created breeze. Emma slowly began to walk down the rest of the sand dune towards Regina, Henry attached at her side. Regina pushed off one foot and stood up from her previous sitting position.

Her heart was racing in excitement and her breathing quickened. Despite seeing Emma just an hour earlier, this was the first time she had seen her Emma in six years. Emma took one step at a time, willing her pulse to slow enough for her to be able to think semi-clearly. She saw Regina stand and took a deep breath of air, knowing that oxygen would be scarce once she got any closer to the woman. When they were about a foot away, they both stopped, staring at each other nervously.

"What were you doing up there?" Regina's shaky voice finally pushed out, her head tilting to the sand dune where Emma had been sitting. Emma's eyes flickered around Regina's face, wanting to look at everything, touch everything. A slowly smirk settled on her own face and she bit her lip slightly to contain it.

"I was waiting."

Regina's brows furrowed as she asked innocently, "waiting for what?"

"For you to catch up," Emma said, her smile growing slightly, the memory of the first time they'd had this conversation flashing through her head. Regina's jaw dropped, knowing exactly what Emma was doing. Remembering exactly what came next. Her stomach flopped uncontrollably and she gulped audibly.

"Catch up to what?" She asked in a trembling voice, so quiet that Emma could barely hear it.

"To this." Emma whispered as she hooked her arm around Regina's waist and gently pulled her toward her, capturing her lips with her own.

Regina's world was shattered in that moment. Everything that had been and was now fell away, the only thing that mattered to her in that moment was that kiss. That kiss made her feel like time and space didn't even exist. She felt her skin tingle, but she wasn't even sure if it was her skin that was tingling.

She decided, if it was possibly for every organ, every blood vessel, every cell of her body to hum excitedly at once, it was. Regina fingers traced along Emma's neck, curling up and tangling in Emma's blonde hair as she gently tugged her closer so that she could deepen the kiss. 


	11. Chapter 11

The waves lapped up onto the shore slowly. The sea was calm tonight and only a small breeze blew through the air.

"Mmmm," Regina hummed appreciatively as Emma kissed her way up the side of her neck. Emma sat on a blanket they had spread out across the sand, her legs spread wide, Regina sitting between them, her back resting on Emm's chest. They both stared out into the rolling dark sea.

"You know…" Emma detached her lips from their predestined path, her breath tickling Regina's skin as she talked, "I don't really know if I'll ever be able to leave this blanket…" The draw of what was just inches away from her was too much for her to continue. Regina's skin under her lips felt too perfect to replace the sensation with words.

"We will have to leave eventually…" Regina tipped her head farther to the side, her eyes shutting slowly as she reveled in the magic that Emma was performing on her neck, "Particularly when the sun comes u-ahhh"

Regina couldn't control the involuntary moan that slipped out from between her lips. Emma had moved on from using just her lips and was now grazing her teeth up the brunette's neck, biting down and sucking on her pulse point.

Emma smiled against Regina's neck as Regina turned her head around just enough to meet Emma's lips with her own. The brunette reached out an arm and clasped it onto the back of Emma's neck, kissing her deeply. They pulled away slowly, but kept their faces inches away.

"You don't think the regular beach goer will want to see all of this?" Emma raised an eyebrow and her lips began to stretch into a smile. Looking up slightly into Emma's eyes, Regina jerked forward the few inches remaining to press her lips against Emma's chastely before pulling back with an almost embarrassed smile.

"What was that for?"

"Because you're beautiful. But to answer your question, no I don't think the beach goers would like to see this." Regina waved her hands around her and Emma's body.

They were both naked, sitting on a thick quilt with a multitude of other blankets wrapped around them. Their bodies remained flush as they leaned into each other, the warmth swirling around inside the sealed of world they had created away from the cool, windy air.

Emma looked at Regina again. She couldn't stop staring at the woman.

"It's kind of weird don't you think?" She finally said as Regina began to raise an eyebrow.

"What's weird?"

"Knowing each other how we used to be, and then meeting all over again, and now knowing both versions, that probably doesn't make sense."

"No, it made perfect sense." Regina sighed softly, she'd been wondering if the novelty would wear off. If Emma would wake up and realize she wasn't the eighteen year old woman that had fallen in love with her, that things were different now.

"Yet, you don't seemed to have changed all that much," Emma brushed her hand against Regina's cheek softly, skimming it with the pads of her fingers.

Her lips turned downward slightly as her eyes traced the features of her face, "you still don't think you're good enough to be loved."

Emma ran her thumb over Regina's bottom lip softly, feeling how soft they were. Regina sat perfectly still, watching Emma's eyes watch her. Regina turned her head downward suddenly as she felt her eyes sting with moisture. Emma ducked her head to make eye contact with the brunette woman.

"Hey. I think… I know the perfect thing that will help you understand how I felt, and still do feel about you." Emma leaned over Regina's blanket clad body around where her feet were snuggled up and grabbed the grey rock that lay there in the sand. Emma rustled around in her bag, looking for something while Regina opened her mouth to speak.

"I still don't understand how you have that." Regina rubbed her fingers over the rough surface of the rock that was still clutched by Emma's hand. "We threw this rock in the ocean. I remember it clearly."

Emma finally found what she was looking for in her bag and pulled it out, returning to her sitting position. She brought the rock, in one hand, and the sharp metal tool in her other hand and began to scrape the glue off from in the crack of the rock.

"Wait-what are you doing?" Regina put her hands over Emma's stilling them quickly.

"I'm opening it."

"Why?"

"Because I want to add something to it."

"But where did it come from!"

"We did throw it in the ocean, you were right. But I came back for it after. I just-I don't know I couldn't let that go. I know we were supposed to leave a piece of our love here, but I didn't want to leave it. I wanted all of it." Emma looked up guiltily and then back down at the rock. "I'm not sure if that makes me selfish or-"

Emma's lips were yet again interrupted by Regina's pressing into them. When they pulled away, Emma's eyes looked hazy, as if she were in a constant daydream, a goofy smile on her face.

"Now Emma dear, would you just open the damn rock?"

"What? Are you kidding me that's what I've been trying to-and you wouldn't stop-" Emma sighed, a smirk spreading across her thin pink lips as she saw a mischievous glint in Regina's eyes.

After scraping off as much glue as possible Emma wedged the tool in the crack and wiggled it back and forth, the rock busting open with a crack. The two sides fell apart as the inside glittered with the crystals was revealed.

Regina was amazed that they were still there, neglecting to remember that these crystals had been growing inside this rock a hell of a lot longer than the six years since they had last seen it. The pieces of paper that had been folded and placed inside of it remained. Emma plucked it out of one side and began to open it slowly.

"Do you remember what yours says?" She asked Regina, looking over the paper and into the dark chocolate eyes she loved so dearly.

Regina shrugged just the slightest fraction of an inch, "Kind of."

As she unfolded it more, the seemingly singular folded piece of paper turned into two, each with a completely different set of handwriting on them.

"Which one do you want me to read first?" Emma's heart was racing in her chest.

She remembered what she had wrote, she believed what she had wrote, but she was completely clueless to what Regina had put down on the paper.

Their instructions in the moment had simply been to leave a piece of their love in the rock that they were going to throw into oblivion. Into the absolute nothingness of the ocean. They had left all the questions, details, and explanations to each person's interpretation.

"Yours." Regina could feel her stomach doing that flopping thing it did when she was nervous.

"Okay…" Emma flipped one paper in front of the other, took a deep breath and began to read:

 

"She told me to leave a piece of our love on this paper. I don't want to leave a piece of it anywhere. I want to hold onto all of it, but if it means that our love with cross the limits of time and space in her mind, then I will.

I love her. In case something happens, it starts to rain or something and I'm forced to stuff this paper in this rock and chuck it immediately I need the world to know that. I need the oblivion we're throwing this rock into to know that.

I love her. But you see, those words have been ruined. Not for me, but for the world. People throw it around and say it here and there and it's lost it's luster. It's lost it's meaning. So I'll try to break it down for you, oblivion.

Because, being unfeeling and vast as I imagine you are, it must be hard to understand the absolutely bursting and confined way my heart feels around Regina Mills. I'm positive if I could rip it out of my chest, still beating and alive, it would expand forever with all the damn love I have in it for that woman.

I've known her for a week. Don't scoff at me, oblivion. I know it sounds crazy, but god, it feels even crazier. I've known her for a week, and in that week I've believed I could be a poet, an astronaut, a singer, a chemist. I've believed I could do anything in that week. I still believe.

But oblivion, I've only finished high school. I'm a fisherman. It doesn't make sense for me to want these dreams, or even believe they're possible. But I do. I do, because Regina makes me feel that they are possibly.

I just looked up at her while writing this. She's hunched over the paper like she's writing her deepest secret. I suppose she is. I figure you can't find a better listener than oblivion. Maybe she's got it figured out. You promise you won't tell?

I'm scared. There I said it. I'm scared. She has this baby growing inside of her, oblivion. It's tiny and it doesn't really look like anything yet, but it's in there. I promised her I would raise that child with her. I'll do that, and I love doing that. That's not what I'm scared about.

You see, I'm scared I won't be able to give them everything. I can give them myself, but that's just about all I have. I want to give Regina her mother's acceptance. If I could somehow, I would. I want to make her feel safe. I want her to go to college if she wants, but to know she doesn't have to if it's not what she wants.

I want her to have those moments where she stares out into the ocean and thinks about how she wouldn't change a thing about where she is. I want her heart to feel like mine, oblivion. And not in a selfish, I want her to love me way the way I love her kind of way. I want her to love anything this way.

It's painful to feel this in love, but it's the best pain possible. I suppose you wouldn't understand that, oblivion.

It hurts like the cold ocean feels after spending hours in the sun. Like finally getting to drink water after being lost in the dessert. I know you don't get my analogies. But it's all I've got. I suppose you'll have to figure it out yourself.

I love her. I've known her for a week, but I love her. I didn't hear you scoff that time, oblivion. I believe you're losing your touch."

Emma looked up from the paper that was now splattered with some of her own tears, creating wrinkled blotches on the now damp paper. She pressed her lips together as her chin quivered uncontrollably. Her eyes held pools of moisture that glistened in the moonlight.

When she saw Regina's face tracked with her own tears she laughed softly, causing the moisture to squeeze out of her eyes and roll down her face.

"I feel like it's taboo to cry from my own words," Her chuckling was joined by Regina who brought her thumbs to Emma's face and dried it for her.

The brunette woman rubbed her thumb over Emma's cheek, her eyes widening so much that they undoubtedly held a secret.

"What?"

"Read mine." Regina's eyes flickered down the paper in Emma's hands, her mind whizzing as she slowly remembered.

Emma's forehead wrinkled in slightly confusion at why Regina was looking at her like that. She flipped the pieces of paper, putting the one behind, in front. Her eyes drifted to the top of the page and she opened her mouth to read. 

"Most of my life, I've felt lost. People drifting by me, coming and going, while I stayed in the same place.

I felt like I was watching my life rather than living it. I felt like I was oblivion. And then I met Emma.

Sometimes though, I still feel like that. That I am just a void in the sky looking down on the beautiful woman that has stolen my heart, so many questions swirling around in the emptiness that surrounds me.

How could you love me, Emma? How could you love me when I was so unaware and filled with nothing.

I've known you for a week, Emma. I know I should scoff at that. People don't just fall in love in a week. But I did. Perhaps I'm losing my touch..."


	12. Chapter 12

_Most of my life, I've felt lost. People drifting by me, coming and going, while I stayed in the same place. I felt like I was watching my life rather than living it. I felt like I was oblivion. And then I met you, Emma. Sometimes though, I still feel like that. That I am just a void in the sky looking down on the beautiful woman that has stolen my heart, so many questions swirling around in the emptiness that surrounds me._

_How could you love me, Emma? How could you love me when I was so unaware and filled with nothing. I've known you for a week, Emma. I know I should scoff at that. People don't just fall in love in a week. But I did. Perhaps I'm losing my touch..._

* * *

 

 

No, I know I'm losing my touch. Because all the things that were before you, have now changed. They've changed Emma and god, I never want them to change back. The sea is more blue, the flowers smell stronger, I wish for more things. I wish for more things.

I know, that might sound like the opposite of what you'd think. Wishing for more. But Emma, you gave me the hope to wish. You made me feel worth it. Most of all though, you've given me the gift of life. You've shown me that I don't have to resent this child inside of me. That he will not be the end.

You've promised to raise him with me. You've changed him from a dead end to the most beautiful thing that's every happened to me, Emma. If one day you read this, if somehow you crack open this rock and read this, I'm sure you'll be gasping at my assumption that the tiny little baby inside me will be a boy. I'm not assuming, Emma. I know. Somehow, I just know. You must understand that though Just knowing. We've only known each other for a week. Seven days.

Yet, I know you more clearly than I've ever known anyone my entire life. It's your eyes that give you away mostly.

They change color, did you know that? I've never seen them lighter than the day I told you I loved you. I've never seen them more green than when you defended me in front of my mother. They swirled like the ocean that night on the beach when you trusted me with your secrets. And Emma, they were practically dark as night when we made love. I know it's silly to hope for this, I know how ridiculous it is. But Emma, I hope my baby has your eyes. I hope his swirl and lighten and brighten like yours do.

I love you, Emma. I love you. I wish there were words beyond love. Words that only the universe hands out to the people that mean it. I mean it. I know you do, too. I think it'd give us those words, Emma. I think it'd want us to use them.

Emma looked up from the paper that was trembling like the wind at the sake of her hand. She let her head fall between her bent legs as sobs fell out of her. Regina crawled up to her and tangled her limbs in the blonde's.

"What's wrong?" She tipped up Emma's head in order to look her in the eye. Emma smiled through her tears, though they were still overwhelming her.

"We lost all these years. This is how we felt for all these years, and we lost them." Regina tucked Emma's fallen hair behind her ears and cradled her face in her palms. "Emma, we have the rest of out lives. Do you realize that? Right now. In this moment. We have nothing stopping us. Not even oblivion," Regina's smile spread widely and her white teeth shone through. Emma laughed, causing tears that had gathered in her eyes to fall down her face unwillingly.

"But you're oblivion. You said it in your letter."

"And I'm not that scary, am I?" Regina bit her lip to keep her smile from taking over her entire face. Emma leaned into Regina's hands and kissed a soft palm near her cheek.

"No, not scary at all." She whispered into Regina's flesh.

"I resent that, but I'll take it." Regina responded, her lips now inches away from Emma's. After several excruciating seconds, their lips crashed together. Both of their hands grabbed tighter, their bodies moved closer and unconsciously, they both began to cry. Not sobbing cries, not even ones that take your breath, just tears. Tears streamed down their faces in relief. Relief that they had found something they had felt the entire time they were missing.

The sun eventually did come up and the two women begrudgingly left their spot on the beach, trekking back up to the house with blankets wrapped around their still naked skin. They made it as far as the outdoor shower before their kisses became heated and their hands couldn't stop roaming. Emma unclasped the door, the two of them slowly moving into it as they refused to detach lips.

Once closed behind them, Regina pulled away, reveling in how betrayed Emma looked that she had stopped claiming the blonde's lips as her own. Regina reached out an arm, her gaze on Emma's eyes only, and twisted handle so that the showerhead began to spray water. Emma yelped as the icy water hit her skin first and jumped to get out of the way of its stream.

She ended up with Regina pinned between the nearest wall and her now cool body. Regina moaned softly as Emma simultaneously took a step forward while also clasping her hands around Regina hips and pulling her towards her. Their bodies melded together. As Emma's lips grazed upon Regina's throat, the blonde's hips slowly rolled forward into Regina's core. Regina threw her head back, giving Emma even more access to her neck.

"Momma are you in there? It's breakfast time!" A little voice pierced through the only sound of the water falling. Regina reluctantly pulled back and smiled at Emma.

"I can't remember, have you met my son Henry? I promise his adorable smile makes up for his unfortunate lack of timing."

Emma chuckled and nodded her head, "I believe I have. Short, brown hair, hazel eyes, can pretty much convince anyone to do anything he wants?"

"That'd be him." Regina responded, kissing Emma quickly and slowly pushing off the wall to peek her head out of the door of the outdoor shower.

"Okay honey. I'll be out in a second. Can you hand me two towels first?" Regina asked pleasantly and tilted her head to the cabinet that stood next to the shower. Henry nodded and grabbed the towels. Regina thanked god that her son didn't ask why she needed two and not just one. He scurried back into the house, undoubtedly to try and pour his cereal on his own.

"I need you to stay in here for ten seconds after I leave. I need to get dressed and ready for work and if I have you near me…" Regina slowly looked up and down Emma's toned body with darkening eyes and swallowed heavily, "anywhere near me. I'm never going to get ready in time."

Emma's lips spread into a side smile as Regina kissed her once more and disappeared out the shower, a towel now wrapped around her body. When Regina was finally ready, she made her way down the stairs in her waitressing uniform.

At the bottom of the stairs, she saw Emma and Henry through the screen door, swinging on the porch swing as they did almost every morning together. She sighed happily and leaned against the stair banister. Henry saw her from the swing though and squealed.

"Mom!" Regina pushed off and walked over to the screen door, opening it with a slight creak.

"Morning Henry." "Morning, Momma! Guess what Emma just told me?" Regina sat down in the empty space next to Emma on the porch swing.

"She said she's staying forever." Henry continued with wide eyes.

"She did, did she?" Regina traded glances with Emma who looked slightly embarrassed this was coming from Henry.

"Yeah, she did. And she said that we're going to have to take a trip to where she used to live to get all her stuff because Mom," Henry lept across Emma's lap and squished Regina's face in his tiny hands, "SHE'S STAYING FOREVER."

The brunette knew she should scold her son for being so loud, but he was so excited she couldn't bring herself to. She wrapped her arms around the little boy and pulled him completely onto her lap.

"Yes, she is, and we're going to celebrate. Maybe we'll go fishing on a boat?" She waited with wide eyes until what she had just said processed through Henry's brain. "Wahooo!" Henry hollowed like a wolf and Regina smiled down at him before remembering that Emma might not respond as favorably to the idea. She looked at the blonde next to her.

"Oh, Emma. I'm sorry we don't have to. I wasn't thinkin-" "Regina, it's fine. I've sailed in so many storms, I can't let one keep me from going on the ocean ever again. Now that I think about it, it would be faster if we sailed to my house and picked up some stuff that way." Emma turned toward Henry, who was still laying on both Emma and Regina's laps, "What do you think? Sea trip to my old hometown and plenty of fishing?" Henry nodded his head up and down vigorously.

"Sounds wonderful," Regina whispered in Emma's ear.

"But…right now I have to go to work." The brunette picked up Henry off their laps so that he was standing on the porch and stood up herself.

"Grandma's today?" Henry looked up to Regina and asked. Regina froze, she had no idea what she was going to do with Henry while she was at work. She hadn't even begun to think about the situation with her mother since she found Emma. She was positive though she wasn't just going to drop him off there like nothing had happened.

"I can take him today. You can help me on the docks, Henry." Emma offered in response to Regina's immediately distressed face.

"I'll make sure my boss just has me on the books today. All I do is check people and their boats in and out. Sometimes I drive them around a little." Regina nodded more confidently now, feeling better that Henry wouldn't be trying to lug around huge crates with Emma all day.

"What do you think? Wanna drive around some boats?" Henry was about two more surprises from just completely imploding as he jumped up and down in excitement.

"I'll take that as a yes," Emma laughed. Regina stared at the blonde woman next to her who seemed to changing every bit of her world in less than one day. She wrapped her arms around Emma's neck unexpectedly and kissed her passionately, pulling away seconds later to Emma's surprised face.

"Wha-"

"I just love you." Regina interrupted before grabbing her purse and keys from the table next to the front door and walking down the porch steps. She threw a look over her shoulder halfway down the driveway and saw Emma watching her leave with a lovesick smile on her face.

* * *

 

 

"What's wrong with you?" Kathryn asked bluntly.

"What do you mean?" Regina responded, as she also, had so many times before. They went through this volley of sorts, her and Kathryn. Kathryn would pry and Regina would deny anything was wrong, and Kathryn would shrug it off until Regina came around and spilled her guts to her best friend.

"Regina…"

"Something happened." Regina suddenly burst out, unable to keep up with their normal script.

"Something?"

"Something."

"Oh god, this sounds like when you found Emma washed up on the beach. You didn't find another person on your beach, did you? Because if it's a young and handsome man, you push him right back into the ocean and send him over my way." Kathryn joked, but stopped when she saw Regina look out the window and smile to herself. After a few seconds she followed the brunette's gaze.

On the decks Emma and Henry were currently on a sailboat that had just docked. Henry stood at the wheel, grasping the huge thing with both of his hands. Emma stood behind him, her hands on his, guiding him as they turned the wheel slowly. She could see Henry say something that caused them both to laugh. Kathryn found herself chuckling next to Regina as Henry jumped up and down when the boat started to really turn. She turned back and looked at Regina.

"You totally love her." Regina looked away from Henry and Emma and blushed when she made eye contact with Kathryn's accusing eyes.

"Kathryn-"

"No, I know exactly what you're going to say. You're going to say 'I don't even know her, Kathryn'" Kathryn imitated in a voice that was completely Regina.

"Oh, I know her." Regina countered, her gaze finding a way back out the window.

"Then I'm sure, you'll pull the whole 'I have a son, Kathryn, I can't just do that. What if it doesn't work out?'"

"It'll work out," Regina continued distractedly, smiling at Emma who had just heaved Henry onto her shoulders.

"There's always something. Oh! Classic. So it's 'I've only known her for a week', isn't it?" Regina bit her lip and chuckled under her breath.

Emma bounced Henry up and down on her shoulders as she raced up the dock steps. She could see the boy holding on tighter, but screaming in happiness nonetheless. After a few impatient moments on Kathryn's end she turned away from the window and sighed in entertainment at how worked up Kathryn looked.

"What was my latest excuse again?" Regina asked only to frustrate her best friend a little more.

"That you've only known her for a week." Regina laughed freely and ran her fingers through her hair, unclasping the clip that had almost permanently been stationed at the back of her head for six years now. Her brown tresses fell forward and she flipped her hair around until her hair settled perfectly.

"That didn't seem to stop us before."


	13. Chapter 13

Kathryn sat on a bench that overlooked the ocean, her mouth hanging open. Regina sat next to her, a secret smile on her face. The brunette looked down at her feet as they scraped the sand covering the boardwalk.

After a moment where the only noise heard was the sand scraping, Regina looked up to Kathryn whose jaw dropped expression had merely shifted forward instead of at her. Kathryn stared into the ocean; searching for words that would express how she felt about the story Regina had just unloaded onto her after their shift.

"This whole time?" Kathryn finally pushed out, still staring forward. Regina nodded. When Kathryn didn't hear a response she turned to look at her friend. Regina nodded again, this time with Kathryn's eyes on her.

"And then she came back?"

Nod. Glance. Nod. Kathryn looked back out to the ocean. She couldn't seem to keep her eyes off the vast, blue water.

"And you love her?"

Nod. Glance. Nod.

"And she's staying with you?"

Nod. Glance. Nod.

This time Kathryn stared outward for much longer, she seemed to have run out of questions.

"Holy shit."

Instead of nodding this time, Regina glanced over at her friend whose face looked like she had just found out she had her own long lost lover from a life before herself. Like a flower, a smile grew on Regina's face finishing with a row of brilliant white teeth.

"Holy fucking shit." Kathryn threw her head back and laughed. The sun shined on her face, "Life is so weird."

Regina watched her friend, her own laughter bubbling in her throat.

"I need to see her right now," Kathryn suddenly exclaimed, her head twisting left and right looking for Emma.

They were currently waiting for the blonde and Henry to meet them after Emma's shift so they could go back to the house for dinner. Regina had been planning on picking up some clams and having a clambake, and she was becoming acutely aware that Kathryn was going to insist on coming over as well.

"Why do you need to see her right now? What are you going to do to her?" Regina faked concern, but felt like she was floating and had difficult to keep her smile in check.

"I'm going to hug the shit out of her, and then I'm going to kiss her square on her mouth. She's brilliant, that woman is just brilliant."

"You will not be kissing any part of her," Regina chuckled as she traced a circle in the sprinkled sand with her toe, "and why is she awesome? I'm awesome too. I'm just as much part of this as she is."

"She traveled the entire ocean, escaped death, mothered your son, and won your heart over in the process, just to make up for the past years she didn't know existed." Kathryn stood and swung an invisible sword, flung her arms as she pretended to swim and rocked a fictional baby all while she ranted.

"I can't believe you have already dramatized and romanticized an already dramatic story."

"An already dramatic and romantic story," Kathryn winked as she remained standing. Out of nowhere, a devilish grin spread over her face.

"Oh, hello Emma," Regina heard Kathryn shout mischievously and her head snapped up to the direction her friend was standing.

Emma and Henry strolled down the boardwalk hand in hand. Henry's hair was mussed and covered in salt, the tops of his cheeks pink from the sun.

"Hi Aunt Kathryn!" Henry screamed while he was still a couple feet away. He waved excitedly as he let go of Emma's hand and took off into a jog, no doubt to begin his endless monologue of everything he did that day.

Kathryn placed her hands on the little boy's back when he crashed into her legs and wrapped his tiny arms around her knees.

"Hi Henry." Kathryn responded through her smile, looking over his head to Emma who only had eyes for Regina. Regina stood suddenly from the bench as Emma neared.

"Hello," Emma said with one corner of her mouth curled up.

"Hello." Regina responded as her cheeks warmed with a blush that was felt more than seen.

Emma leaned forward, shifting her weight to just one foot as she softly kissed Regina's cheek.

Kathryn squealed, "Henry, Aren't your mom and Emma the cutest?"

Henry shook his head, unsure of what Kathryn was really getting at, "I'm the cutest!" he argued.

Regina and Emma who stood side by side now laughed at the adorable little boy.

"But Henry aren't they the cutest together?" Kathryn pushed, obviously wanting a matchmaker on her side.

"Aunt Kathryn," Henry ignored Kathryn's question, suddenly thinking of something more important. He tugged at her leg until she leaned down to his height.

"Yes Henry?"

"Emma told me that she loves my mom today," the little boy whispered into Kathryn's ear.

Regina tilted her head to the side quizzically, but Emma shook her head, having a pretty good idea what he was talking about. He had been repeating what's she'd told him and asking questions for most of the day.

Kathryn, for her part, grinned, "Henry, tell your mom what you just told me."

Regina took a step toward the boy as he tugged her down just as he had for Kathryn.

"Mom, Emma told me she loves you."

Regina smiled as her son whispered so delicately what he thought was the biggest secret in the world. After he finished she leaned back to look at his face.

"I know honey, but why is it a secret?"

Henry glanced to Emma as if asking her why. The blonde wrinkled her chin and shrugged. In response Henry mimicked her and shrugged as well.

"Emma loves my mom! Emma loves my mom!" Henry shouted as loudly as he could, feeling free that his knowledge was no longer a secret.

The three women laughed loudly. Kathryn was biting her lip to keep from squealing.

Regina turned to Emma to say something. Before she could, Ruby, who was leaving the crab shack from her shift, waltzed up to Emma.

"Emma! I saw you working at the docks today. You look stronger than some of those men out there."

Emma furrowed her eyebrows, "Uh-"

"Now, I'm not sure if you have plans, but I have a beach party I'm going to this Friday and I was wondering if you'd go with me," Ruby seemed to be ignoring the other two women who were currently gaping at her, "as my date." She finished.

Regina who had previously been standing still, took a challenging step toward the dark haired flirt.

"Oh for the love of god, get your ass out of here. Emma is mine. She was mine. She is mine. She will be mine," Regina narrowed her eyes, glaring at Ruby with a look that might as well have shot daggers and lit things on fire, "Forever," she finished.

Ruby pursued her lips, obviously debating on whether this was a battle she wanted to fight. Emma walked up next to Regina and interlaced her fingers with the fiery brunette's. Ruby stared at their joined hands for a second before rolling her eyes, pivoting on her heels, and walking back across the street.

They were all silent before Henry started screaming again. Pointing one finger at his mother, "You said a bad word Momma!"

Regina laughed and placed her own hand on Henry's outstretched one, pushing it down gently.

"It's not polite to point," she scolded with a smile. Henry faltered, unsure if his infraction cancelled out his mothers. Apparently it did, since he scrunched up his face and put his finger down, grumbling in the process.

Emma leaned down and nudged Henry, "she totally said a bad word." Henry nodded with wide eyes, clearly glad someone agreed with him.

"Don't encourage him!" Regina whined, but grinned at Emma goofily the entire time.

Regina looked away from Emma after a brief period of time and realized that Kathryn was staring at the three of them with her mouth open.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing."

Regina rolled her eyes in response and turned back to Emma, "I was thinking about picking up some clams for dinner and having a clambake on the beach. What do you think?"

"Sounds good to me," Emma responded with a smile that induced Kathryn's squealing to finally slip out.

"Okay I can't hold it in you are all just so in love and domestic!" She interlaced her hands together and held them just below her chin. Emma chuckled before flicking her eyes back to the brunette.

"I'll go pick them up right now. I'm friends with a guy at the fish market so I'll get the good stuff. How much do you want?"

Regina glanced at Kathryn who had put on her best puppy dog eyes. Sometimes she wondered if she had one or two children.

"Enough for us plus the squealing one over there," Regina pointed with her thumb at Kathryn. Emma smiled and nodded as she began to walk back down the boardwalk.

A couple feet away, Emma called over her shoulder, "Henry you wanna come to the fish market with me?"

"Yeah!" Henry screamed and sprinted after her, waving his hands about to catch her. Emma saw him running and laughed. She started to run a little faster and weaved back and forth on the boardwalk so his grasping hands kept missing her legs.

After a little while she stopped and scooped him up into her arms, heaving him onto her shoulders effortlessly. Henry screamed as he went up, clasping his arms around her neck. He turned back to look at his mother, the biggest grin on his face.

Regina watched the woman and her son walk away, thinking how similarly she had imagined this scene six years ago.

 

The sun dipped into the water while Regina cooked the clams on a portable grill on the beach. Emma and Kathryn had carried down a table from the porch and placed it near the beach, surrounding it with chairs.

Henry was in charge of silverware and he carried the forks in his open palms, eyes focused on them as if one wrong step would cause them to fall and shatter.

Emma and Kathryn stood in the kitchen, gathering the plates and napkins necessary.

"So…" Kathryn began, her back facing Emma as she plucked cups from the cupboard.

"So," Emma replied, turning to lean her back on the counter. She'd been waiting for the best friend speech.

"So, you love her."

"I do."

Kathryn sighed in relief, "This is just amazing. I feel like normally I'd have to force and push and twist arms to get Regina to this point in a relationship and here it's just happened."

Emma chuckled knowingly, "Yeah, she was pretty hesitant to let me in the first time."

"Falling in love in one week is not exactly hesitant."

"You should have seen her that first day," Emma whistled as both woman chuckled, "At the end of that first day I wanted to kiss her so badly, but I knew there as equal of a chance of her either kissing me back, or slapping me."

"Sounds exactly like her."

"Yeah…" Emma said wistfully as she remembered the week that had changed her life in so many ways.

"What are you going to do about her mother?" Kathryn's voice shifted in an instant to a more serious tone. Emma sighed and Kathryn quickly burst out, "the only reason I ask is because I know it might be hard to talk to her about it."

Emma nodded, appreciating the gesture, but only sighed again. She thought for a moment before answering, "I want Regina's mother to let her choose how to live her life and accept the results. That's all I've ever wanted. Even after she called me every name in the book and threatened me to get out of town, that's still what I wanted for her. And now that Regina knows what she's done, it's a long shot she'll even accept her apology. But-"

Emma stopped, her eyes wetting as moisture filled them, "But I want more than ever for them to fix what's between them. I know what it's like to lose your mother before you're able to say 'I'm sorry', before you're able to say 'It's okay'. It sucks." The moisture in Emma's eyes spilled onto her cheeks, "it really sucks."

Kathryn pushed off the wall and embraced Emma in a hug. Tightening it when she felt Emma's chest shake slightly with soft sobs. Emma pulled back after a little while wiping her red eyes embarrassedly.

"Regina told me about how you lost your parents. I'm really sorry. But I need you to know, that we're here for you. We're your family now."

Emma nodded and her face relaxed considerably. Kathryn scooped up the cups in her hand. With one last look decided she was pleased with Emma's response and turned to walk out the door. Just before she made it though the doorway, she paused.

"Has she told you about her drawings yet?"

Emma wrinkled her forehead in an attempt to search for a memory that involved Regina and drawing.

Kathryn sensed what she was doing and stopped her, "I think she started after the accident."

"Then no, I don't think so."

"Make sure you ask her about it."

Without waiting for a response Kathryn disappeared out the kitchen to finish setting the table.

"I will," Emma whispered, reveling in the fact that she now had all the time in the world to ask Regina questions.


	14. Chapter 14

Regina and Emma lay beneath the stars on a blanket. They decided it would be something they would try to do every night. Or almost every night.

After all, they had so many firsts together under the stars, why not continue the tradition?

Emma dug her heel, which extended off the blanket, into the sand.

"Can I ask you something?" Emma turned her head to look at Regina's. When she did, she realized Regina's face was already tilted toward hers.

"Anything."

"Tell me about your drawings."

Regina took a deep, slow breath, the kind where you suck in as much air as your lungs will hold before gently releasing it.

"Kathryn told you?"

"Yes."

Regina tilted her face back up to the stars, feeling almost a rush of exhilaration at the fact she didn't have to keep secrets anymore. She didn't have to struggle to place why she felt the way she did.

Her life, which had been a field of shards had placed itself back together so perfectly she felt like those shards had transformed into a sheet of glass. Each piece where it was supposed to be Each chip, healed.

"I'll show you."

Regina stood, holding out a hand to help Emma up as well. They walked back to the house, the sandy blanket encased in Emma's arms. Regina led them up the stairs and down the hall to a door that Emma had never entered before.

Before opening it, Regina twisted around, leaning her back against the wood.

"I've never shown anyone these before."

"But Ka-"

"Kathryn stumbled in here by accident. I didn't show her."

Emma looked into Regina's eyes and could see the hesitance and self-doubt swirling in them. She raised her hand to Regina's cheek and stroked it gently, tilting her head to the side in amazement at the beautiful woman before her.

With one shaky breath, Regina twisted the doorknob behind her back. The door crept open as she put her weight on it.

Emma watched as Regina turned around and walked into the room, seemingly too nervous to maintain eye contact while Emma discovered this.

Emma stepped through the doorwary, her eyes jumping from one point to the next, her head craning from side to side. Her lips parted as she continued to walk forward, her hand extending out and grazing the canvas that stood before her.

The room's walls were lined with paintings, sketches, prints, of landscapes, of people, of anything. While Emma recognized many of them as scenes from around town, some of them were of other places Emma had never seen before. Her finger followed the curve of a dune, admiring the how perfectly accurate the colors seemed to be.

Regina rearranged canvases on the other side of the room, "What do you think?" Her voice wavered nervously.

"Regina, these are amazing."

Regina turned to face Emma, her face eyes heart-breakingly hopeful, "Really?"

"Of course really. Are you seeing what I'm seeing? They're like nothing I've ever seen before."

Regina smiled and her eyes gazed into the blonde's. Emma could tell she was trying to decide whether to believe Emma or not.

Here, I'll show you." Emma waved Regina over, a small smirk on her face. Regina walked up next to Emma and the blonde took her hand in her own. She brought Regina's hand to the canvas, guiding Regina's hand in tracing the dune.

"I sat on this dune when I watched you find the rock," Emma moved Regina's finger as it brushed against the rough texture, "See how the painting feels?"

Regina nodded.

"That's exactly how it felt against my legs."

Emma took a step to the left where a shore landscape was drawn out in pencil, "See how you painted the wave like that," Regina's finger under Emma's guidance traced the rolling wave that seemed to explode out of the sea only to dive back under.

"I've sailed over those waves. Waves that look exactly like that. See how it seems to follow a dolphin's path as it jumps out the water? That's how the boat feels when it floats over them. It feels like you might just launch into the sky before dipping back down."

"This right here?" Emma lifted Regina's hand to a painting that used thick layers of oil pants for texture. It was a self portrait of Regina. Emma ran their interlaced fingers over the section of the painting that transitioned into Regina's red lips.

"Well these, these are almost accurate. I know, because I've felt your lips," Emma turned to Regina, twisting so that the fronts of their bodies became flush, "I've felt your lips all over my body and," Emma gently let Regina's hand stay at her side as she lifted her own fingertips to brush along Regina's lips, "I'm sorry, but there's no possible way to make painted lips," Regina looked up into Emma's eyes as their heads leaned in.

Their breathing quickened slightly. When they were just millimeters away Emma finished, "as smooth and soft as yours are." Regina leaned up slightly and connected their lips, allowing their heads to spin as they explored just how smooth, and just how soft the other's lips felt.

When they pulled back Regina's eyes sparkled and a smirk spread across her face, "So you really like them."

"I can feel these paintings, Regina. That's how I know they're amazing." Emma replied a little breathlessly. She allowed her eyes to travel over more of them, craning her neck back to look at the ones hung higher on the wall.

As she bounced from painting to painting she noticed a strange feature in most of them. Right in the corner, sometimes along the side there seemed to be a flash of yellow. Sometimes it was only a few strokes, sometimes it took up a substantial amount.

"What's this?" Emma ran her fingers over one of the paintings with the yellow streak.

Regina moved to where Emma was pointing and allowed the corner of her mouth to curl up. She glanced sideways where Emma's eyebrows were slightly knit, her eyes narrowed in question.

"That's you," Regina whispered as she continued to look at Emma. "Whenever I painted, I would feel this urge to put it in. I would make it through a whole painting, but before I could my brush down I'd have to add a flash of blonde hair."

"But you didn't remember me."

"I can't explain it really. I always kind of figured someone was attached to that wisp of blonde hair, but I didn't want to try and remember something I knew I couldn't. I came to conclude it was probably just a piece of my imagination."

Regina dropped her hand to her side and looked down at her feet, noticing how the dust coated the wooden floor. She hadn't been in here, she realized since Emma had arrived.

"Well, I'm here now, and I'm not going anywhere."

Regina looked up at Emma, her eyes skimming along her face, "I know."

 

Emma walked up to big house, noticing the way her feet were scuffing against the pavement. She pulled her hair into a low ponytail, somehow she felt more professional with her hair tied back. She rapped on the door with purpose, her shoulder squared, her head held high.

"You are not eighteen years old anymore. You are an adult. You can handle yourself," she whispered.

Bracing herself for the door to swing open in true Cora fashion, she was more than surprised when it inched open slowly instead. Emma waited for the large presence that had made her tremble when she was younger, what she saw instead was puzzling.

Cora stood there, leaning against the doorframe looking weak and broken. Her eyes were red, her hair was frizzy, her skin held a grey tint to it.

Before Emma could get out a word, Cora held up a hand, "If you're here to yell and scream and tell me what an awful mother I am…" her eyes looked down to Emma's shoes mindlessly, "save it."

"I'm not."

Cora's head shot up, apparently banking on the thought that was why Emma was here. With no other comebacks or witty one liners prepared she let out a sigh filled with self-hate.

"Then, come in... I suppose," Cora left the door wide open as she disappeared into the house. Emma took a few steps in, looking around at the elaborately decorated and expensive looking interior that hadn't seemed to change a bit since the last time she was here.

She found Cora sitting in her kitchen at the island, hunched over a steaming cup of coffee and a magazine that was spread out.

"So what did you come for, dear?" Cora's tone was menacing, but Emma saw right through it. She glanced to the older woman's hand resting on the countertop. It was shaking.

"I want to help you."

Cora let out a laugh so bitter it induced an ache in Emma's chest.

"You can't help me."

"Okay," Emma shrugged and walked further into the kitchen. She began trifling through the cabinets to Cora's dismay, pulling out a coffee cup when she found one and pouring her own cup of coffee.

"Do you have any sugar?" Emma asked with her back turned. When she received no reply she turned around, eyebrows raised. Cora sat there with her jaw dropped.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She pushed out, but there was no malice in it. Instead, it was laced with complete and utter confusion.

Emma stared at her, deciding black coffee would have to do for now and taking a sip. She cringed, god that was so bitter, "I told you. I want to help."

Cora gaped for a minute, staring Emma down. Emma just stared back, sipping her coffee nonchalantly.

After awhile Cora huffed and threw up her hands, "While your intentions are still…questionable I will allow myself to believe you. You're wasting your time though, there's nothing you can do to help. Regina will never let me back in her life."

Emma nodded in thought, looking down into her coffee in contemplation.

"I have something I need to show you," she said after awhile. She placed her coffee cup on the table and nodded to herself once more, deciding that it was the right time. She turned to walk out of the kitchen.

Cora found herself in an unusual situation. She felt herself wanting Emma's approval. She felt the need to convince Emma she was worth saving. She ran her hands through her hair as her stomach swirled with acid. When did she get so weak?

Emma returned with something held behind her back.

"You couldn't have brought that in when you came to my door?"

Emma's lips curled up slightly, "I didn't know if you were going to let me in."

Cora allowed herself to return the smile reluctantly, knowing how accurate the blonde's thinking was.

"Well, now you're here. Enough with the theatrics, let's see what you have for me." Cora pushed the magazine and half empty coffee mug aside, clearing countertop space for what Emma was about to show her. The blonde pulled it around from her back and placed it gently on the granite surface.

Cora peered at it, her eyes watering immediately.

Laying before her on the island was a watercolor painting of Cora and baby Henry. At the bottom, Regina had painted her own arm reaching out to touch him hand. It seemed as though the painting was a direct view through Regina's eyes. Cora ran her fingers over the painting, leaning back when she realized that her tears were close to falling.

She traced along her painted face, noticing how Regina had painted it so softly. She was holding up Henry, his small body leaning against her chest as he smiled up at her. Her neck was craned to look at his and you could tell from the picture there was a sense of absolute comfort between grandmother and child.

"Where did you find this?"

"I may have borrowed it from Regina's art room. I shouldn't have, but I didn't know another way to show you she cares."

Cora looked back down to the painting, her smile soft as she tilted her head.

"I didn't even know she could paint."

"She started after the accident."

"Thank you," Cora looked up from the painting and wiped her tears away delicately with her finger.

Emma allowed the corner of her lip to curl up and she nodded.

"I-I have something also." Cora stuttered out, now incredibly flustered at how emotional she was. She needed space. She needed a moment to breathe.

In a flash, she walked purposively out of the kitchen and upstairs. Emma felt her entire body relax, she had been trying to hard to keep her confidence, to keep control in case Cora decided to lash out and resort to a screaming fight, but the woman seemed to have been completely broken when she got here. It seemed her only job was to put the pieces back together.

Minutes later, Emma heard the footsteps of the older woman coming down the stairs, she turned the corner and walked down the hall casually. In her hands she held a book.

"This was Regina's. It was her diary. She wrote in it almost every day. You should give it to her," Cora held it out to Emma. Emma took it in her hands for second before looking up at the Regina's mother. Her eyes were still red and puffy from crying. Emma held the book back out.

"No, you should give it to her."

"She-she doesn't want to see me. She'll shut me out. I've ruined too much."

Emma looked into her brown eyes, challenging them with her own emerald ones.

In a calm, even tone Emma began, "I'm going to go back now. We're going to the beach for the day. At five p.m. I'll make sure we're home. Come give this to her then, okay?"

Emma dumped the remnants of her coffee cup down the drain and walked out of the house without saying another word. Just as she was about to leave Cora's voice rung out, "How can you be so sure?"

Emma turned around to see Cora frozen in the hallway, the older womans' eyes flickering around nervously at the comprising position of vulnerability she'd just put herself in.

"Because she told m she only paints things that bring her life, things that make her feel. And that painting I showed you. The one with you and Henry. There are about twenty of those hung up around the room. Each better than the last." Emma ended with a tight lipped smile that Cora slowly returned.

Seconds later, Emma turned and jogged down the porch steps back to her car.

Cora returned to the island where she realized Emma had left the painting. She picked it up and looked at it again, never getting enough of the beautiful scene painted by her daughter. She flipped it over to see if it was dated. It was. On the back of the canvas, below the date Regina had written:

Mom and Henry – perfect day at the beach.

Cora ran her fingers over the writing as she had done to the painting, seemingly needing the touch to believe it was true.

She smiled to herself, allowing her lips to stretch back enough to reveal her teeth.

She caught a glimpse of her reflection in the coffee mug and her heart lurched. She had to shower, put on makeup, change her clothes, maybe go pick up some groceries, do her hair, gather Henry's toys...

She was going to see her daughter.


	15. Chapter 15

"Emma! Henry! Wai- Emma!" Regina's eyes flicked from woman to child as they flung peas at one another.

At the sound of Regina's voice, both Henry and Emma froze and directed their eyes to the doorway where the brunette had walked in, the guilt immediately filled their eyes. Regina walked over to Henry first, picking a few peas out of his hair, his lap, the floor.

He smiled innocently and batted his thick eyelashes; she was weak and crumbled, walking away from his with a affectionate hair ruffle. She moved to Emma, who unsurprisingly had a pea stuck in her hair as well. Leaning down, she plucked the pea and moved her face inches away from Emma's.

Their eyes conncted and in a moment that was supposed to be filled with light scolding was instead replaced by lurching hearts. The second Emma smiled, Regina knew it was all over. Eliminating the remaining inches, they met together in a sweet kiss.

"You know. I could definitely get used to that," Emma mumbled as they pulled apart, her eyelashes still fluttering about.

"Get used to what?" Regina smirked, loving the effect she had on the other woman. After so many years of loneliness, she found herself bathing in the affection the blonde woman gave her.

"Oh…" Emma's eyes mapped out Regina's face, "Oh did you mean the kiss? I meant throwing peas at Henry." Emma's lips tugged hard and a grin broke out on her face. She leaned to the side to see around Regina and caught Henry giggling to himself.

Regina surprised Emma again with another kiss, this one longer, deeper. She blocked it from Henry, but he suddenly seemed to be more interested in smashing peas on his plate rather than what his mother was doing. This time, as Regina pulled away, Emma released a soft puff of air. Her eyes made no movement to flutter open as they had before, instead remaining happily closed.

Regina gazed at the blonde for a second before moving closer to her ear, "that's what I thought."

Emma's eyes finally opened slowly and the corners of her lips lifted.

"One more," she whispered. Regina tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow. Emma watched her closely, mentally cursing when it seemed Regina was not going to lean back in.

"What are you? Some kind of chicken?" Emma asked, knowing exactly what memory it would trigger. Regina bit her lip into an effort to contain her smile, but within seconds Emma kissed it right off her.

_"Emma! This is ridiculous." Regina shouted from the sand with her hands cupped over her mouth. She looked out at the beach where midnight black water lapped up the shore. Emma's bare back stood just a couple feet in front of her, seemingly illuminated by the moonlight. Emma turned her head, looking over her shoulder._

_"Are you just going to stare at me or are you gonna get in, too?" She uncovered her crossed arms from across her chest and hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her shorts, shimmying both them and her underwear down. Both layers of clothing pooled at her feet and with a quick flip of her foot, they were off to the side. Regina's eyes opened wide and she felt her heart quicken in her chest. Again, Emma looked over her shoulder. She saw Regina's shocked look and raised her eyebrows._

_"You've got it bad for me, don't you?" Regina scoffed, and wrinkled her forehead. She averted her gaze to the moon, the sand, the ocean, anything except for that milky skin that was pulling her in as if it was magnetic._

_"It's just skinny dipping. It's not like I'm asking you to make passionate passionate love to me on the beach." Emma joked and instantly the temperature in Regina's face spiked. Emma had been messing with her like this the entire day just because she happened to gasp when their hands touched, or blush when Emma came near._

_In the few days that they'd met Regina and Emma had become such good friends the line was blurring. What was on the other side of that line, Regina had no idea. Emma watched Regina as she seemed to be debating something inside of her. She watched her teeth pull at her lip, her hands fidget in front of her stomach, her weight shift from foot to foot._

_"Are you going to chicken out on me?" Emma's voice broke Regina's thoughts. Despite the seemingly innocent question, Regina could hear an edge of concern in it that made her want to lurch forward and assure Emma she'd never leave her, that she'd always be with her no matter what the circumstances._

_But that wasn't what Emma was asking. In that simple question, Emma wasn't asking her to watch her skinny dip, or tell her it was going to be okay, that there was no way a shark would come eat her. Emma wasn't asking to be friend._

_She was asking her to come with her into the rolling black waves. Side by side. Hand in hand. She watched as Emma's face fell with each second she didn't answer. First it was her forehead, it's wrinkled state relaxed, preparing itself to pretend it didn't care. Then, it was her lips, they flat-lined, too, in an effort to conceal what they were really feeling._

_Regina noticed Emma's body go from one of extreme hope to dulled acceptance. But one feature remained truthful, her eyes. Emma's eyes could never hide anything. From the minute Regina met her, she knew that girl's downfall would be her eyes. With her gaze pinned on Emma's green orbs, Regina unclasped her hands and pulled up on the hem of her shirt. She lifted the shirt above her head, feeling the goosebumps litter her skin as each inch became exposed to the cool air._

_When she tossed the shirt next to her, she saw Emma's pupils dilate, despite the fact her eyes never seemed to leave Regina's. Regina hooked her thumbs, as Emma had, into the band of her shorts and pushed them down. When she stood completely naked, she tilted her head and smiled._

_"Does it look like I'm some kind of chicken to you?"_

_Emma took a staggering breath and finally allowed her eyes to spread the expanse of Regina's body, "No, no it does not."_

When Regina pulled away, she sighed deeply and rested her forehead against Emma's. She was just about to go in for one more kiss when she heard the doorbell ring. She pulled back and wrinkled her forehead. She wasn't expecting anyone.

As Regina turned to go answer it, Emma remained sitting at her seat, tensing visibly. Regina hummed her way to the foyer, allowing her bare feet to tiptoe along the wood floors. She opened the door so nonchalantly it was almost like she hadn't expected anyone to be there. Instead, Cora stood in the doorway stiffly with her arms crossed over her chest. Regina's body seemed to immediately vibrate with anger. So much so, Cora could almost taste the pure contempt that was evaporating from her daughter's skin and into the air.

"What are you doing here?" Regina sneered.

"I-uh…" Cora started before she felt as if her tongue had gone numb and her had throat closed up. Regina waited for an answer that would undoubtedly start some confrontation, but instead, Cora just stood there like a scared puppy. It seemed that when stripped the thing she fought for most, she had nothing left. Much to her relief, Emma appeared from behind Regina, placing a soft hand on Regina's hips.

"I invited her," Emma said softly, cringing when Regina's whipped around with a face of stinging betrayal.

"You did what?" Regina was unable to hiss as much as she wanted, for the shock and surprise was too close to the surface. She looked at Emma with eyes that made the blonde think this was the worst idea she'd ever had. But when she glanced at Cora, she knew deep down that Regina was begging for her mother.She knew Regina wanted any excuse to forgive her mother and run into her arms, because in the end, no matter how much she wanted to hate the woman, she couldn't.

"Can we go in another room and I'll explain?" Regina paused, at first, seemingly unwilling to comply, but as the seconds passed she slumped and nodded briskly. "Stay here," Regina motioned to her mother. Cora nodded and looked down at her feet. As soon as the two woman slipped into a side room, Regina pushed her back against a wall. She tilted her head back and looked up at the ceiling.

"What were you thinking? she whimpered out. Emma stepped closer to her and put two hands on either of her shoulders.

"She loves you Regina." Regina tilted her head forehead to look at Emma and wetness that had pooled in her eyes streamed down her face.

"It doesn't make up for what she did! Six year Emma, six years." Regina's voice was hopeless, desolate and Emma felt her heart aching for the woman across from her. "I hate her for that as much as you do. Trust me, I do. But... you have to forgive her."

"Why would I even consider that?" Regina pushed out. Emma paused, wanting to explain how it was she could forgive the mother who had kept them apart for six years in only a day. How she was able to see so clearly that Cora was nothing more than a woman completely unconfident in her abilities as a mother that she had to resort to manipulation and force to make sure her daughter stayed with her.

"Because despite what she didn't tell you, she was there for you. When you woke up from that accident six years ago, she was there for you. She might have left me out, but Regina, she was there. You were probably scared and alone and she brought you back to life." Regina allowed the tears to stream down her face and collect at her chin as she remembered just how "there" her mother had been for her all those years.

_"Mom, I can't do this. I can't." Regina lay in a hospital gown on a rollaway bed in the hospital. Her round stomach lifted from her petite frame and she stared at it fearfully. Cora was currently rifling through her purse when she heard the scared tone escape from Regina's mouth._

_As soon as she saw Regina's face, she dropped her purse and immediately walked over to Regina's bed. She sat in a chair that was permanently situation next to Regina side, just for her. She grasped one of her daughter's hands in both of her own._

_"Regina."_

_"Mom…I can't," Regina shook her head back and forth as her chin quivered._

_"Regina," Cora said a little more firmly this time. Regina slid her head against the cotton pillow to look at her mother._

_"You are a good person. You-" "I'm none of the things you are about to say," Regina interrupted woefully. "The funny thing is, dear, you don't get to say that because this is my speech." Regina looked over at her mother and through the tears and doubt and fear she smiled. She really smiled. Cora started back from the beginning,_

_"You are a good person, you are strong, you are brave. You're everything this little baby needs. You have always been the most magnificent person I've ever known, and there is no one more suited to be a mother, than you." Cora watched as her words sunk into her daughter's head and traveled throughout her face, relaxing all the worrying muscles in its wake._

_"I love you," Regina whispered. For some reason, this moment struck Cora as a punch to the gut. Every awful thing she'd done in the past came flooding toward her and without warning her eyes began to fill with both tears and guilt. Regina placed a concerned hand on her mother's cheek._

_"What's wrong?"_

_Cora shook her head and frantically wiped away the tears, "Nothing. Nothing." Regina stroked her hand over her mother's cheek and smiled. Cora looked up from her downturned state, "I love you, too."_

When Regina's mind returned to the current time and place, Emma was stroking her own face with her thumb.

"She was there," Regina responded. Emma waited for Regina to sort out whatever volley of ideas was currently going on in her head. When it finally did, Regina looked up.

"This is also because of your Mom, isn't it?" Regina asked curiously. Emma froze, wanting to hide her emotion in this moment, but as always, her goddamn eyes gave it away. "It's okay," Regina responded as she saw Emma's eyes become overflowing with sorrow. She pulled in Emma for a hug.

"You can't lose your mother," Emma muffled into her shoulder, "You just can't."

"I won't," Regina whispered before she kissed Emma on her forehead. "I won't."


	16. Chapter 16

Regina took each step one and a time, lingering on each one for a suspiciously long time. She could hear the thud of Emma's footsteps echo hers as she moved from one step to another. Upon reaching the wooden floor of the foyer, she tilted her head, which had been previously turned downward at the floor, up just barely.

Cora stood, still at her place in foyer, her hands wringing together tightly. At the sight of Regina, the older woman opened her mouth to speak first, as she usually made habit, but shut it quickly without more than a breath of air escaping her lips.

Regina worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she stared at her mother. She flipped between the alternate ways she could go about approaching this situation. She would forgive her mother, she'd told Emma that much, but she wasn't about to pardon the woman who had made her nothing more than an empty vessel for six years on a whim.

No, she was done bending her will for others. And on top of that, she was absolutely done letting life pass her by without as much as a fight.

She took a deep breath and felt the weight of Emma's hand rest on her shoulder. She didn't need to turn around to know the brief smile of encouragement that she was flitting over Emma's thin pink lips.

"Mother," Regina began with a snap of her head. Her eyes met the familiar brown ones of her mother, and boy was it killing her.

Just do it Regina, she thought to herself. She had to ream her mother for her actions, that's what she had planned to do. She had to stick up for herself. She had to.

But there, in front of her, instead of the power-hungry, put together, intimidating stature she was used to seeing, stood a woman who had been stripped of everything.

And beneath all those layers of self-righteousness and control, Cora looked weak…and old. Regina didn't remember her mother ever looking so old.

She scanned along the sagged nature of Cora's eyes, they seemed dull and lifeless, Cora's skin, how it wrinkled with years of wear. Her hands that wrung tiger and tighter if only the stop the tremor that shook them.

Regina felt her resolve crumbling by the second and Emma seemed to sense it. The blonde stepped down the last step onto the foyer and with the thud of her foot, Regina snapped out of her rapidly increasing sense of doubt.

This was her shot to let Cora know how much she hurt her, her one and only shot. So with a determination she could only compare to her mother's she began to speak.

"I don't- I-" Regina began with a start that was less than intimidating. Almost immediately the tears began to sting the back of her eyes. She cursed herself for being so weak and breaking her stony exterior in less than a second.

Her eyes lingered up to her mother's whose were, and had been since she had started walking down the stairs, coated with salty liquid. And with that one look into her mother's eyes, Regina felt the wind knock of out her felt as though her chest had just been compressed into a hundredth of the size it had previously been, and all the air with it had escaped from her.

"How could you?" Regina whispered so quietly that even Emma had a hard time hearing her. Regina moved her foot along the wooden floor, feeling the planks under her toes.

"How could you?" She repeated louder this time. She could do anger, she convinced herself. Her mother deserved anger. She deserved the right to be angry. With another tilt, her eyes were back, glaring at Cora's. It only took a second before she took a swift step forward.

"Do you have any idea how much you hurt me? Any idea how I felt all those years when I knew something was missing. I had happiness, mother. I had it right in my hand and you took it away!" Regina was screaming now. Her voice seemed to rise with every coming word.

Emma remained rooted in her position in front of the stairs, her hand gripped around the banister in uncertainty. She respected Regina's expression of anger, but she was wary of how rapidly his situation could escalate.

Cora's eyes just leaked and leaked as her daughter screamed. Tears streamed down her face as she punished herself for her wrongdoings by looking Regina straight in the eye so that all the hurt that swirled inside of them pierced her heart with the force of a sword. She knew deserved it. And more.

"I was so alone, mother. And lost. I had Henry and you robbed Emma of her chance to raise him with me! You stole everything. And not just from me..."

Somewhere in the last sentence, Regina's screams had turned into sobs. Her words came choking out of her throat as if she was forcing them out of hiding. T

hey jumbled into the air and smacked into Cora's chest like a freight train, "You stole happiness from Henry too." Regina finished. She was crying forcefully now and she took another step forward, getting very close to Cora.

Out of pure instinct, Cora opened her arms for a place to Regina to rest her head, and while the brunette did put her head on Cora's shoulder, her hands were busy pounding softly on Cora's chest.

It was an act that one would see a child do after a tantrum, a last ditch effort to remain their resolve, to convince themselves of their anger was justified and as fiery as they had originally felt it before they settled deep into the comforts of wrapped arms and a warm embrace.

And eventually, like a child would, Regina calmed, her fists stilling and her face burying deep into Cora as whimpers were muffled into Cora's shirt. Regina's body began to calm from the shaking sobs that had previously resonated from within her. The places where her head had been previously had been were now smeared with wet tears.

Cora tightened her arms around Regina, her own tears falling on Regina's back. They were a jumbled mess of salt, water, and complete despair.

"I'm sorry," Cora hushed into Regina's hair as her face grimaced in pain, "I'm sorry."

As Emma watched the two women embrace, her hand relaxed significantly on the banister. She'd never seen a more visible example of change occur before her eyes, and she doubted, she ever would again.

For before her, stood a beautiful woman, finally standing up for something that she wanted in her life. Her family. And while Emma knew it might have seemed easier to come at her mother with sharp words and glares, forgiveness was harder. Taking a mistake that someone made, and telling them that they could move beyond it was beyond difficult, and because of this, Emma was proud.

The mother and daughter duo remained hugging so long Emma's feet began to ache from standing, but eventually they pulled away from each other. As they were brought slowly back to reality they both wiped their tear stained faces frantically, embarrassed by their frazzled appearances.

Emma almost chuckled at the sight, like mother like daughter, she supposed.

"I'll never forgive myself, Regina." Cora stated plainly after her face was dry once again. "I will spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you. I promise." Regina nodded and allowed the corner of her mouth to lift slightly. But before she was able to respond with words, Henry came whipping around the corner and crashing into her legs.

"Guess what, guess what, guess what!" he screamed maniacally, completely oblivious to the groundbreaking moment that had just occurred before him. Regina chuckled slightly as she kneeled down to the floor.

Above the kneeling woman and her son, Cora flashed her eyes up to Emma's. With a look that seemed to be swirling with so many emotions, Emma recognized out one at the forefront. Appreciation.

"What is it Henry?" Regina asked after clearing her throat, it was still gravely from her crying.

Henry's eyes glimmered as his feet shuffled in place on the wooden floor, he seemed to be so excited that he couldn't get the words out of his mouth and had instead resorted to do a little jog out of glee..

"Someone is here and they said they have a surprise!" He finally burst out in one big breath.

Regina furrowed her eyebrows and cocked her head to Emma who shrugged innocently.

When Regina turned and shuffled to get up from her kneeling position, Emma looked beyond the brunette to Henry where she allowed her mouth to curl into a little smile. She winked at the little boy and put a single finger up to his lips.

His eyes widened greatly and his jaw tumbled open at the newly learned fact that whatever this surprise was, Emma knew about it. He opened his mouth to reveal the plotting blonde, but Emma punctuated her finger to lips again in an effort to keep him quiet. He clamped him mouth shut, but hurried over to Emma who scooped him up in her arms.

"What is it?" He whispered loudly into Emma's ear. Regina, realizing her son had seemingly transporting into Emma's arms, raised her eyebrows at Emma in question, but the blonde remained resolute and merely shrugged once again.

Frustrated, Henry wiggled his way down Emma's arms and raced back to the back porch where he remembered the stranger was still standing. Regina followed Henry, Emma followed Regina, and Cora, still feeling awkward and unsure, despite the fact that she was just formally forgiven, trailed at the end.

Just before the line of adults reached the back porch, Emma caught up to Regina and grabbed her hand. The spark that accompanied the contact slithered up Regina's arm and fizzled around in her chest warmly.

"Hello? What can we do for you?" Regina asked when she finally stepped onto the porch and saw a gruff looking man in black standing there.

The man nodded politely to Regina, but responded to Emma instead."Hello Emma."

"Killian," Emma replied formally. Regina looked between the two, clearly confused.

Killian pulled his hands from behind his back and revealed a large manila envelope.

"I heard about your parents. I'm very sorry," he said just before placing the envelope in Emma's waiting hand.

"Thank you." Emma replied as she tucked the envelope under her arm.

"Everything should be stocked, cleaned, ready to go. I know you said you didn't need a crew, but I have a couple men on hand just in case you change your mind."

"I appreciate it. And this," Emma waved the envelope, "should have all the information and materials we need?"

Killian nodded and waited as Emma peeked in and checked to see that the man was good to his word. While he stood there, his lips briefly curled up at the sight of Henry's head tilted up, his hair falling back as he stared up at him in a trance.

Cora and Regina stood there the whole time in a manner that was surprisingly similar to Henrys.

"Very good. Thanks again. I think that'll be all." Emma said once she was satisfied with the mysterious contents of the envelope. Killian nodded and made his way off the porch briskly. The minute he was far enough out of earshot, Regina jerked around to face the blonde.

"What was that all about?"

Henry added, "Yeah! What!"

Emma just grinned in response and handed Regina the envelope. Regina furrowed her eyebrows and stared at the outstretched hand before taking it slowly. Cora and Henry unconsciously leaned in, anxiously awaiting. As Regina pulled out the papers inside and scanned them her face tensed into one of complete disbelief.

"What is it? What is it?" Henry jumped up and down.

"Yes, dear, what is it?" Cora added quietly, still not confident enough to truly be herself once again, but unable to keep her curiosity in.

Regina felt her stomach backflipping inside of her as she read the words on the paper. She lifted her eyes to Emma's whose were sparkling bright.

"You-" Regina looked over the papers once more, scanning in disbelief, "You-"

"Momma!" Henry stomped his feet and whined as he pulled at Regina's shirt. Emma remained standing, leaning slightly in the doorway, her head tilted to the side. Regina looked up, and in that one second Emma's face seemed to encapsulate every single wonderful moment that she and Regina had ever shared.

"Darling? Are you ever going to tell us what it is?" Cora whined. She, too, was getting frustrated by the secrecy and lack of information she was currently sporting right now. Regina reluctantly tore her eyes from Emma and glanced at her mother.

"She got me a job, a commission for my art," Regina choked out, not fully comprehending the papers. She flipped through a couple of them and stared down, "but how?"

"Let's just say my parents knew a couple of important people in our town. They were practically royalty there. All I had to do was send in some pictures of your drawings and they were interested right away." Emma leaned her head against the doorframe and bit her lip as she saw Regina's hands trembling in shock.

"You can make the art wherever, they just need you to be there for the grand reveal." Emma added.

"You did this… for me?"

Emma took a step toward Regina and ran the pad of her thumb along the brunette's cheek, stopping at her chin, "Of course I did. I told you I'd give you the world, didn't I? I promised I'd at least try."

Regina nodded, biting her lip to keep more tears from spilling over. Cora looked at the two woman and a soft smile spread on her face. She placed a soft hand on Henry's shoulder who was standing in confusion at the anti-climactic reveal of the surprise.

"Momma, why are you crying?"

Regina chuckled and wiped away her tears, "It's nothing Henry. I just…Emma gave me something very nice." Henry nodded like he understand and turned to Emma. He held out his hand in a high five position, "Good job Emma!"

Emma laughed at the little boy and returned his high five, hugging him into her leg.

"There's one more thing," Emma said as she cleared her throat. "Uh, I- well, I-" She stammered uncharacteristically and looked down at her feet, suddenly shy, before croaking out, "Well, there's another surprise."

"What is it?"

"I got us a boat."

"A boat?" Henry chirped from below. Emma looked down and stroked his hair.

"A boat," she affirmed before looking back up to Regina, "with supplies and food and rooms. We can go anywhere we want."

Regina thought back to her years of isolation, her years of constant, static, crushing and utter loneliness where she felt she lived in something more akin to a box than a town. And here Emma was, giving her the world. Just like she'd was overwhelming in the best possible way, in an indescribable way.

She couldn't contain herself anymore; she took a few quick steps until she was wrapped in Emma's arms. Burying her face in Emma's chest, she reveled in the feeling of excitement that was rocketing through her body before looking up into those familar green eyes that were sparkling as always.

"So where do you want to go?" Emma asked as she swept a few fallen strands of Regina's brown hair behind her ear. Regina thought for a second before answering, scrunching her face in deep , it relaxed and she took a deep breath.

"Anywhere," Regina said softly, her lips spreading further as she broke out into a wide grin. The blonde returned the smile with her own broad one.

As she gazed at her lover, Emma felt her heart speeding up in her chest, her lips spreading impossibly wider and her head spin. She felt more love in this moment than she knew most people felt in a lifetime.

She glanced quickly from Regina to Henry to Cora. They all looked so happy, so simply happy. She wondered if anyone else in the world had every shared a moment so perfect than the one she was experiencing right now.

Emma placed a gentle kiss on Regina's lips before pulling back and hovering just inches away.

"You know…I've been wanting to go anywhere myself."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's it folks! Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading :)


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